Reliability of 36-item Short Form Health Survey (Chinese Version) in Assessing the Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Objective To determine whether the Chinese version of 36-item Short Form Health Survey(SF-36) can be taken as an effective assessment to evaluate the quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis.Methods 30 patients with knee osteoarthritis were tested twice in 3 d with the Chinese version SF-36 by two standard-trained testers.The Cronbach's α coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC) were investigated.Results The ICC of total scores and parts scores in the Chinese version SF-36 were 0.54~0.91,while the Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.70~0.95.Conclusion The Chinese version SF-36 is reliable in evaluating the quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis.