Article

The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of the RAND 36-item Health
survey as a measure of health-related quality of life in a general Dutch
post-rehabilitation population. A total of 752 ex-rehabilitation patients were
invited to complete the Dutch RAND 36-item health survey. After 2 weeks, the
people who responded to the first questionnaire were asked to complete the same
questionnaire again. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was expressed as
Cronbach's alpha. Test-retest reliability was expressed as intraclass correlation
coefficient (ICC) and presented in Bland-Altman plots. Internal consistency was
found acceptable for all subscales (n=276; Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.81 to
0.95). Test-retest reliability was found acceptable for research and group
comparisons for all subscales (n=184; ICC ranged from 0.71 to 0.88). Overall,
test-retest reliability of the physical functioning (ICC=0.86), pain (ICC=0.87),
and general health (ICC=0.88) subscale was relatively high, and that of health
change (ICC=0.71) was relatively low. Reliability of the questionnaire did not
notably differ between participants who indicated stable health and participants
who indicated health change during the past weeks. In conclusion, the Dutch
translation of the RAND 36-item health survey is reliable for research and group
comparisons in a general post-rehabilitation population. However, the RAND
36-item health survey is not sufficiently reliable for individual comparisons
within this population.

Langue : ANGLAIS