We chose the Medical Outcomes Trust

We chose the Medical Outcomes Trust Short Form 36-
Health Survey (SF-36) to measure quality of life. The SF-36
(Ware & Sherbourne 1992) includes one transition question
and 35 questions on quality of life. The transition question
asks patients to rate the amount of general health change that
they have experienced during the past year. The remaining 35
questions are organized into eight subscales: (a) physical
function (10 items); (b) role limitation caused by physical
problems (four items); (c) role limitation caused by emotion
problems (three items); (d) social function (two items); (e)
bodily pain (two items); (f) mental health (five items); (g)
vitality, energy/fatigue (four items) and (h) general health (five
items). The eight scales are divided into two categories: the
physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component
summary (MCS). Scores are transformed to a scale of
0–100, where higher scores represent higher functioning.
Reliability coefficients for each of the eight scales are ‡0Æ80
and the scales are sufficiently sensitive to detect changes in
health-related quality of life in patients with CHD after CABG
surgery (Kiebzak 2003, Ware & Sherbourne 1992).