Use of the SF-36 to identify community dwelling rural elderly at risk for hospitalization

The SF-36 has been identified as a generic measure of health-related quality of life outcomes which is not age, disease, or treatment specific and is deemed appropriate for monitoring the results of care as well as a measure of outcomes from the patient's perspective. The purpose of this study was to use the SF-36 to assess the general health status and health promotion activity of rural elderly 1 year following participation in a community-based health promotion project. Eighty participants from the original sample of 222 (190 community-based and 32 home-based) were contacted by telephone and the SF-36 was administered. Results found that 76% of the study participants were correctly predicted for past hospitalization. While this project studied elderly in a rural community, the administration of this instrument can be useful in identifying a variety of populations at risk for hospitalization.