20-Item Short Form Survey from the RAND Medical Outcomes Study

The 20-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-20) was developed for the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), a multi-year study of patients with chronic conditions. The resulting short-form survey instrument provides a solution to the problem faced by many investigators who must restrict survey length. The instrument was designed to reduce respondent burden while achieving minimum standards of precision for purposes of group comparisons involving multiple health dimensions. Learn more about the SF-20 »

Available Documents

MOS 20-Item Short Form Survey Instrument (SF-20)

PDF fileSurvey instrument

Related Reading

Measuring Function and Well-Being: The Medical Outcomes Study Approach — 1992

Stewart AL, Ware JE., eds. (1992)

OrderDocument available for order at dukeupress.edu

User's Manual for Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Core Measures of Health-Related Quality of Life — 1995

Hays, RD, Sherbourne, CD, Mazel, RM. RAND Corporation, MR-162-RC, 1995.

This manual summarizes the MOS measures and presents psychometric results from the MOS. It is designed to be a companion to the book, Measuring Function and Well-Being: The Medical Outcomes Study Approach.

Full documentFull document

Other instruments from the Medical Outcomes Study

This website offers a list of all instruments that have been approved by the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust

Other instruments from MOSSee other instruments at outcomes-trust.org

Bibliography for the Medical Outcomes Study

BibliographySee bibliography

Bibliography for the Medical Outcomes Study 20-Item Short Form (SF-20)

BibliographySee bibliography for SF-20

My RAND ?

Saved Items

Recommended

View My Profile

Permissions Information

All of the surveys from RAND Health are public documents, available without charge (for non-commercial purposes).

Non-Commercial Purposes

Please provide an appropriate citation when using these products. In some cases, the materials themselves include specific instructions for citation. Some materials listed are not available from RAND Health. Those links will take you to other websites, where you will find instructions for use. No further permissions are necessary.

Commercial Purposes

If this is a commercial purpose please send an email with a brief description regarding the use of the survey. We review commercial requests on a case by case basis.

Translations

Many of the surveys listed are available in other languages. If you are interested in translating any surveys into another language, see our translation guidelines.

Questions or Comments?

Email us at RAND_Health@rand.org