The validity of the SF-36 in an Australian National Household Survey: demonstrating the applicability of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examination of health inequalities

Table 4 Population estimates of mean SF-36 Scale scores and Component Summary Scores (with N and standard deviation) from the HILDA Survey. Means (and sd) from ABS (1995) are also presented, together with estimate of independent t test to assess differences between estimates.

	HILDA Population (weighted)		Australian population norms¹
	Mean (sd)	N	Mean (sd)	N	t test
Physical Component Summary Score ²	49.23 (10.6)	12 320
Mental Component Summary Score ²	49.79 (10.3)	12 320
Scales
Physical Functioning	82.49 (24.0)	12 760	82.6 (23.9)	18 734	0.40
Role Physical	79.06 (36.2)	12 714	79.9 (35.1)	18 710	2.06
Bodily Pain	73.89 (25.6)	12 977	76.8 (25.0)	18 699	10.09
General Health	69.54 (21.6)	12 718	71.6 (20.3)	18 715	8.60
Vitality	60.72 (20.0)	12 938	64.5 (19.8)	18 728	16.64
Social Functioning	81.14 (24.0)	13 031	85.0 (22.5)	18 789	14.64
Role Emotional	81.83 (33.8)	12 686	82.9 (32.3)	18 620	2.82
Mental Health	73.42 (17.7)	12 930	75.9 (17.0)	18 676	12.55

¹ From ABS, 1995
² Physical and mental summary scores were calculated differently in the ABS publication (using factor scores from principle component analysis and stardardised to have a mean of 50 and sd of 10). Therefore, it is not appropriate to directly compare with the HILDA data derived using the standard scoring procedures.

ISSN: 1471-2458