Q J Med 2001; 94: 695-698
© 2001 Association of Physicians
Improving the measurement of quality of life in older people: the York SF-12
From the Department of Health Studies, University of York, York, UK
Received 3 August 2001 and in revised form 9 October 2001
To assess whether changing the layout of the SF-12 affected item response rates, we tested two SF-12 formats in a quasi-randomized trial of women aged 
70 years in two general practices in North Yorkshire. The modified version of the SF-12 (‘York SF-12’) converted the ‘stem and leaf’ format of some questions to individual items. We assessed the effect of the two types of questionnaires on item response rates. The difference in overall response rates to the two questionnaires (York SF-12 26.8%; SF-12 29.5%) was not statistically significant (95%CI -1.88% to 7.22%). However, the modified SF-12 had a statistically significantly lower item non-response rate of 8.5%, compared with the 26.6% of the SF-12 (95%CI 11.1%–25.1%). Chronbach's alpha reliability scores for the York SF-12 were also slightly better than for the older version. The York version of the SF-12 is an improvement on the original questionnaire. We recommend that the York SF-12 be used in preference to the SF-12 when surveying an older population.
Address correspondence to Ms C.P. Iglesias, Department of Health Studies, University of York, York YO105DQ. e-mail: cpiu1{at}york.ac.uk
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