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 2 Descriptive statistics for SF-36 scales.

SF-36 scale¹	No. of items	Mean	Median	Range	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis	Floor (%)	Ceiling (%)
PF	10	83.19	95.00	0–100	23.11	-1.70	2.10	0.5	33.8
RP	4	79.11	100.00	0–100	35.58	-1.42	0.40	12.4	68.8
BP	2	74.30	84.00	0–100	25.19	-0.81	-0.20	0.9	32.9
GH	5	70.02	72.00	0–100	21.14	-0.80	0.16	0.2	6.1
VT	4	60.87	65.00	0–100	19.84	-0.59	-0.01	0.4	1.1
SF	2	81.96	87.50	0–100	23.55	-1.29	0.86	0.6	49.4
RE	3	82.13	100.00	0–100	33.08	-1.64	1.16	9.9	73.3
MH	5	73.92	76.00	0–100	17.42	-0.98	0.88	0.1	3.3
PCS	21	49.17	52.55	3.61–71.87	10.33	-1.19	0.86	0.0	0.0
MCS	14	49.92	52.74	4.45–73.94	9.95	-1.18	1.24	0.0	0.0

¹ PF = Physical Functioning; RP = Role Physical; BP = Bodily Pain; GH = General Health; VT = Vitality; SF = Social Functioning; RE = Role Emotional; MH = Mental Health; PCS = Physical Component Summary; MCS = Mental Component Summary.

ISSN: 1471-2458