Medical outcomes study, health status

Wu, A.W. Rubin, H.R. Mathews, W.C. Ware, J.E., Jr. Brysk, L.T. Hardy, W.D. Bozzette, S.A. Spector, S.A. Richman, D.D. A health status questionnaire using 30 items from the medical outcomes study. Preliminary validation in persons with early HIV infection. Med. Care 1991, 29, 786-798. 

The first modem health status questionnaires were very long, but their results were well validated. The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) is an example of an early profile. It includes a physical dimension and a psychosocial dimen-sion. - A dimension is a quality or aspect that is a component of health. The SIP also includes five independent categories including sleep, rest, eating, work, and home management, as well as recreation and pastimes. More recently, shorter profiles have been developed such as the Nottingham Health Profile and the Medical Outcomes Study (MQS) 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36) (Appendix 4). 

Analytic or individual-level studies have been directed either at the effect of air pollution exposure on respiratory health generally, or on the status of persons with conditions (e.g., asthma) that make them more susceptible to air pollution than the population in general. The Six-Cities Study, a prospective cohort study, and the 24-Cities Study, a cross-sectional study, were of the general design. The panel study, a short-term cohort study involving relatively intensive assessment of outcome, has been used to assess the effects of air pollution on susceptible persons. Typically, a panel of participants is enrolled and asked to maintain a diary of symptom status and medication use, and physiological measurements, such as peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) may be made. New methods for data analysis have also made this design more informative than previously (7,8). 

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