Consistency and validity of patient administered assessment of quality of life by the MOS SF-36; its association with disease activity and damage in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Abstract

This study shows the SF-36 is internally consistent and proves construct, discriminatory, and criterion validity for the SF-36 and construct validity for the SF-20+ in patients with SLE. The SF-36 is preferred because of its broader scope of questions, its widespread use, and previous international validation for a wide variety of diseases.