A Perceived Health Index for Use in Persons with Advanced HIV Disease
Derivation, Reliability, and Validity
Published In: Medical Care, v. 32, no. 7, July 1994, p. 716-731
Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 1994
Using health status measures adapted from the MOS scale and contained in the HIV-PARSE survey instrument, RAND developed a perceived health index for people with advanced HIV disease. The scale was demonstrated to be a reliable and valid means of summarizing self-reported current health, correlating strongly with clinical indicators. Conclusions were based on data from approximately 2,000 clinical trial participants (over 7,000 observations). The mean CD4 count was 131. Measures of internal consistency ranged from 0.86-0.90, and items demonstrated excellent discrimination across scales. The reliability in the index was estimated to be 0.94. The Perceived Health Index should be a useful outcome measure for patients enrolling in clinical trials of therapies for advanced HIV disease.
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