10 Validity and reliability.pmd

1Department of Community Medicine, Sari Medical School, Sari, Islamic Republic of Iran (Correspondence to N. Motamed: [email protected]). 2Department of Biostatistics, Shiraz School of Public Health, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. 3Department of Community Medicine, Shiraz Medical School, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. Received: 24/03/03; accepted: 18/02/04 ABSTRACT To assess the validity and reliability of a Persian translation of the SF-36 questionnaire (version 2) as a tool for use in the general population and outpatients, we carried out a cross-sectional study of the staff of Shiraz Medical School during November 2001. Response rate was 83.6%. Internal consistency for 8 scales using Cronbach’s α was 0.87 (minimum recommended 0.85). Construct validity was acceptable as correlation between scales and some sociodemographic characteristics was significant. The correlation coefficient between 8 scales and related principal components was also acceptable. This translation is an appropriate tool for assessing health perceptions of the population.