Dataset Information

Assessing the impact of behavioral risk factors and known-groups validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese immigrant population.

ABSTRACT: Health status measures are being used in increasingly diverse populations. However, there are no known studies to date that examine the SF-12 in US Chinese populations. This study reports on the performance and validity of the SF-12 among Chinese immigrants residing in New York City, and evaluates the impact of multiple behavioral risk factors on physical and mental health status.We used cross-sectional survey data from a multistage probability sample of 2537 Chinese adults. SF-12 scores were examined according to sociodemographic, cultural, and clinical characteristics. Regression analyses were used to examine associations between health status and co-occurring behavioral risk factors of smoking, risky drinking, physical inactivity, and overweight/obesity.SF-12 scores were significantly lower among women, those with less education, lower incomes, and more health problems (P < 0.001). Older adults had worse physical but better mental health (P < 0.05). Individuals with 1, 2, 3, and 4 behavioral risk factors reported decreases of 1.91, 2.92, 4.86, and 9.21 points on the PCS-12, respectively, in comparison with the reference group having zero risk factors (P < 0.01). Similar trends up to 2 co-occurring risks were observed with MCS-12 scores (P < 0.01).The SF-12 exhibited known-groups validity in a US Chinese immigrant population. Co-occurring behavioral risk factors were associated with progressive declines in physical health, independent of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics traditionally associated with impairments in health status. Targeting patients with multiple risks for behavior change may be effective in improving health across diverse populations.

SUBMITTER: Hung DY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5065107 | biostudies-other | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Assessing the impact of behavioral risk factors and known-groups validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese immigrant population.

Hung Dorothy Y DY Lubetkin Erica I EI Fahs Marianne C MC Shelley Donna R DR

Medical care 20090201 2

<h4>Background</h4>Health status measures are being used in increasingly diverse populations. However, there are no known studies to date that examine the SF-12 in US Chinese populations. This study reports on the performance and validity of the SF-12 among Chinese immigrants residing in New York City, and evaluates the impact of multiple behavioral risk factors on physical and mental health status.<h4>Methods</h4>We used cross-sectional survey data from a multistage probability sample of 2537 C ...[more]

PMID: 19169129

Similar Datasets

Project description:Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and health state utility value (HSUV) measurements are vital components of healthcare clinical and economic evaluations. Accurate measurement of HSUV and HRQoL require validated instruments. The 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) is one of few instruments that can evaluate both HRQoL and HSUV, but its validity has not been assessed in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in east Africa, where the burden of HIV is high.This cross-sectional study used baseline data from a randomized trial involving PLWHA in Kenya. Data included responses from a translated and adapted SF-12 survey as well as key demographic and clinical data. Construct validity of the survey was examined by testing the SF-12's ability to distinguish between groups known in advance to have differences in their health based on their disease severity. We classified disease severity based on established definitions from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and WHO, as well as a previously studied viral load threshold. T-tests and ANOVA were used to test for differences in HRQoL and HSUV scores. Area under the receive operator curve (AUC) was used to test the discriminative ability of the HRQoL and HSUV instruments.Differences in physical component scores met the minimum clinically important difference among participants with more advanced HIV when defined by CD4 count (4.3 units) and WHO criteria (compared to stage 1, stages 2, 3 and 4 were 2.0, 7.2 and 9.8 units lower respectively). Mental score differences met the minimum clinically important difference between WHO stage 1 and stage 4 patients (4.4). Differences in the HSUV were statistically lower in more advanced HIV by all three definitions of severity. The AUC showed poor to weak discriminatory ability in most analyses, but had fair discriminatory ability between WHO clinical stage 1 and clinical stage 4 individuals (AUC = 0.71).Our findings suggest that the Kiswahili translated and adapted version of the SF-12 could be used as an assessment tool for physical health, mental health and HSUV for Kiswahili-speaking PLHWA.Clinical trials.gov identifier: NCT00830622 . Registered 26 January 2009.

Project description:AimTo investigate whether items of the SF-12, widely used to assess health outcome in clinical practice and public health research, provide unbiased measurements of underlying constructs in different demographic groups regarding gender, age, educational level and ethnicity.MethodsWe included 23,146 men and women aged 18-70 of Dutch, South-Asian Surinamese, African Surinamese, Ghanaian, Turkish, or Moroccan origin from the HELIUS study. Both multiple group confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA), with increasingly stringent model constraints (i.e. assessing Configural, Metric, Strong and Strict measurement invariance (MI)), and regression analysis were conducted to establish comparability of SF-12 items across demographic groups.ResultsMI regarding gender, age and education was tested in the ethnic Dutch group (N = 4,615). In each subsequent step of testing MI, change in goodness-of-fit measures did not exceed 0.010 (RMSEA) or 0.004 (CFI). Moreover, goodness-of-fit indices showed good fit for strict invariance models: RMSEA<0.055; CFI>0.97. Regarding ethnicity, RMSEA values of metric and subsequent models fell above 0.055, indicating violation of measurement invariance in factor loadings, thresholds and residual variances. Regression analysis revealed possible age-, education- and ethnicity-related DIF. Adjustment for this DIF had little impact on the magnitude of age and educational differences in physical and mental health, but ethnic inequalities in physical health-and to a lesser extent mental health-were reduced after DIF adjustment.ConclusionsWe found no evidence of violation of measurement invariance of the SF-12 regarding gender, age and educational level. If minor DIF would remain undetected in our MGCFA analyses, we showed that this would have negligible effect on the magnitude of demographic health inequalities. Regarding ethnicity, the SF-12 was not measurement invariant. After accounting for DIF, we observed a reduction of ethnic inequalities in health, in particular in physical health. Caution is warranted when comparing SF-12 scores across population groups with various ethnic backgrounds.

Project description:BackgroundThe EQ-5D-5 L and the SF-12 are the most commonly used generic measures of health-related quality of life among people with arthritis. However, there is little evidence on the extent to which the individual dimensions and domains of these instruments perform among this population. The objective was to examine the discriminative validity of the EQ-5D-5 L and the SF-12 version 2 (and SF-6D) in capturing the burden of arthritis on health-related quality of life in older adults.MethodsCross-sectional data from the Alberta Retired Teachers Association survey were used. A known-groups approach, with a-priori hypotheses, was used to examine the discriminative validity of the domain and summary scores of the EQ-5D-5 L and the SF-12 version 2 (and SF-6D). Groups were defined based on self-reported of arthritis, chronic pain level, presence and number of comorbidities, and self-reported health status.ResultsMean age of respondents (N = 2844) was 68.6 (standard deviation [SD] 5.9) years; 54.8% were female, with mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.2 kg/m2 (SD 4.8), and 36.6% reported having arthritis. The overall mean EQ-5D-5 L index score was 0.86 (SD 0.11) and that of SF-6D was 0.79 (SD 0.13). Participants with arthritis had lower EQ-5D-5 L index score (0.83, SD 0.13) and SF-6D index score (0.75, SD 0.13) compared to those without arthritis (0.88, SD 0.09 and 0.81, SD 0.12, respectively). EQ-5D-5 L and SF-6D index scores demonstrated moderate discriminative validity with a moderate effect size (0.5). Related dimensions and domains between the EQ-5D-5 L and SF-12 (e.g., mobility with physical functioning score, pain/discomfort with bodily pain and anxiety/depression with mental health) were moderately to strongly correlated (r = 0.6-0.7). Both instruments could not adequately discriminate between participants with moderate and severe chronic pain of 6-month duration.ConclusionOverall, the EQ-5D-5 L pain/discomfort and mobility dimensions, and the SF-12 bodily pain scale had moderate discriminative ability among older adults with arthritis. However, both instruments had limited discriminative ability for chronic pain. The importance and nature of chronic pain assessment in a given application need to be considered when choosing any of these instruments for measuring health-related quality of life in this patient population.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Along with the ageing of the general population, Europe's migrant populations are also ageing, thus posing new challenges for dementia care services, particularly if the services are to be adjusted to persons with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. From the perspective of health professionals, this study aims to explore challenges involved in identifying, assessing and diagnosing people with cognitive impairment/dementia who have different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. METHODS:Research on health professionals experiences regarding the management of dementia among immigrants is scarce and qualitative methods was used to address the objective of the study. Using qualitative in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions, we sought to gather participants' experiences regarding the diagnostic process for immigrants with dementia. The material was analysed and interpreted based on Kvale and Brinkmann's descriptions of three different contexts of interpretation: self-understanding, critical common-sense understanding, and theoretical understanding. RESULTS:Health professionals described how families could attribute symptoms of dementia to processes of normal ageing, while others saw the symptoms as something shameful; both instances delayed or hindered help-seeking. Many clinicians had limited experience with older immigrants suffering from dementia, and general practitioners (GPs) in particular experienced difficulties assessing dementia due to language barriers and difficulties related to the involvement of the family or an interpreter. The findings illustrate challenges in assessment, such as unfamiliarity with test situations among those being assessed and lack of knowledge regarding appropriate diagnostic tools among health professionals. Lack of continuity and poor information exchange in the chain of care seem to reinforce many of these challenges. CONCLUSIONS:Detection, treatment and care may be improved if primary care professionals strengthen their cross-cultural competences. Training in communication skills and in the use of cross-cultural assessment tools may help build competence and confidence when assessing and caring for people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Closer collaboration among families, nurses in home-based services, dementia teams, and GPs may facilitate close monitoring of a patient over time. Such collaboration requires sufficient information exchange during transitions in the chain of care, continuity among health professionals, and a shared understanding of the goals for treatment and care.

Project description:BackgroundAs health resources and services are increasingly delivered through digital platforms, eHealth literacy is becoming a set of essential capabilities to improve consumer health in the digital era. To understand eHealth literacy needs, a meaningful measure is required. Strong initial evidence for the reliability and construct validity of inferences drawn from the eHealth Literacy Questionnaire (eHLQ) was obtained during its development in Denmark, but validity testing for varying purposes is an ongoing and cumulative process.ObjectiveThis study aims to examine validity evidence based on relations to other variables-using data collected with the known-groups approach-to further explore if the eHLQ is a robust tool to understand eHealth literacy needs in different contexts. A priori hypotheses are set for the expected score differences among age, sex, education, and information and communication technology (ICT) use for each of the 7 eHealth literacy constructs represented by the 7 eHLQ scales.MethodsA Bayesian mediated multiple indicators multiple causes model approach was used to simultaneously identify group differences and test measurement invariance through differential item functioning across the groups, with ICT use as a mediator. A sample size of 500 participants was estimated. Data were collected at 3 diverse health sites in Australia.ResultsResponses from 525 participants were included for analysis. Being older was significantly related to lower scores in 4 eHLQ scales, with 3. Ability to actively engage with digital services having the strongest effect (total effect -0.37; P<.001), followed by 1. Using technology to process health information (total effect -0.32; P<.001), 5. Motivated to engage with digital services (total effect -0.21; P=.01), and 7. Digital services that suit individual needs (total effect -0.21; P=.02). However, the effects were only partially mediated by ICT use. Higher education was associated with higher scores in 1. Using technology to process health information (total effect 0.22; P=.01) and 3. Ability to actively engage with digital services (total effect 0.25; P<.001), with the effects mostly mediated by ICT use. Higher ICT use was related to higher scores in all scales except 2. Understanding health concepts and language and 4. Feel safe and in control. Either no or ignorable cases of differential item functioning were found across the 4 groups.ConclusionsBy using a Bayesian mediated multiple indicators multiple causes model, this study provides supportive validity evidence for the eHLQ based on relations to other variables as well as established evidence regarding internal structure related to measurement invariance across the groups for the 7 scales in the Australian community health context. This study also demonstrates that the eHLQ can be used to gain valuable insights into people's eHealth literacy needs to help optimize access and use of digital health and promote health equity.

Dataset Information

Assessing the impact of behavioral risk factors and known-groups validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese immigrant population.

Publications

Assessing the impact of behavioral risk factors and known-groups validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese immigrant population.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure