Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
Published on: January 17, 2025
Crossover randomized controlled trial of the electronic version of the Chinese SF-36
Tian-hui Chen1, Lu Li, Joerg M Sigle
1Institute of Social Medicine and Family Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Objectives:
to verify the feasibility and reliability of the electronic version of Chinese SF-36 based on the Quality-of-Life-Recorder.
Design:
A crossover randomized controlled trial, comparing a paper-based and an electronic version of the Chinese SF-36, was conducted. According to generated random numbers, interviewees were asked to fill out either the electronic version or the paper version first. The second version was filled in after a pause of at least 10 min.
Settings And Participants:
One group of 100 medical students at the School of Medicine of Zhejiang University and the other group of 50 outpatients at a clinic for general practice in Hangzhou City (China) were eventually recruited in this study.
Results:
The acceptance of the electronic version was good (60% of medical students and 84% of outpatients preferred the electronic version). At the level of eight-scale scores, the mean-difference for each scale (except for general health) between the two versions was less than 5%. At the level of 36 questions, the percentage of "exact agreement" ranged within 64%-99%; the percentage of "global agreement" ranged within 72%-99%; 77% of the kappa coefficients demonstrated "good/excellent agreement" and 23% of the kappa coefficients demonstrated "medium agreement".
Conclusion:
This study, for the first time, can provide empirical basis for the confirmation of the feasibility and reliability of the electronic version of the Chinese SF-36 and may provide an impulse towards widespread deployment of the Quality-of-Life-Recorder in Chinese populations.
