Are health-related quality-of-life measures affected by the mode of administration?

Weinberger M, Oddone EZ, Samsa GP, Landsman PB. Are health-related quality-of-life measures affected by the mode of administration? Journal of clinical epidemiology. 1996 Feb 1; 49(2):135-40.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• RCS 91-408 – Research Career Scientist Award

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

While measures of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are increasingly being used as outcomes in clinical trials, it is unknown whether HRQOL assessments are influenced by the method of administration. We compared telephone, face-to-face, and self-administration of a commonly-used HRQOL measure, the SF-36. Veterans (N = 172) receiving care in the General Medicine Clinic were randomized into groups differing only in order of administration. All patients were asked to complete the SF-36 three times over a 4-week period. The SF-36 demonstrated high internal consistency, regardless of mode of administration, but showed large variation over short intervals. This variation may: (1) increase dramatically sample size requirements to detect between-group differences in randomized trials and (2) reduce the SF-36's usefulness for clinicians wishing to follow individual patients over time.