An examination of self- and telephone-administered modes of administration for the Australian SF-36

The impact of administration mode on health-related quality of life measurement instruments has received little attention, especially for the SF-36. General community members were randomly selected to complete the Australian version of the SF-36 Health Survey using either telephone or mail modes. Modes were compared across a number of indices: data collection costs; consent rates and non-consent bias; data quality (completeness of data and internal consistency reliability); and response effects. Data collection costs were lower for the telephone mode. A significantly higher consent rate was achieved with the telephone mode. Those who were younger were more likely to refuse to participate when the mail mode was adopted, while older people were more likely not to consent to the telephone mode. The rate of missing responses was higher for the mail mode, while significant differences were found between modes in internal consistency reliability estimates. Health ratings were more favorable for the telephone administration. The results are discussed in light of the advantages and disadvantages of each administration mode.