Reliability of a Bahasa Melayu-language version of the MOS 36-item short-form health survey (Sf-36) in patients with low vision

Background: The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) Bahasa Melayu-Language is widely used to determine the health outcomes in Malaysia. Low vision is a condition where the vision cannot be restored and require vision rehabilitation to overcome the challenges faced by them. The SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language can be used to measure the health outcome among low vision patients. However, little information is available among low vision patients. The aim of this study was to assess reliability of the SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language among low vision patients. Methods: Fifty low vision patients were randomly selected between age 14 to 74 years old with a mean ± standard deviation of age of 44.58±18.70 years old. All low vision patients were interviewed by the same interviewer twice. The second interview was conducted 2 weeks later. Results: The SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language showed very good Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.68, 0.67, 0.76, 0.72, 0.73, 0.75, 0.72, 0.73 respectively for physical function (PF), role-physical (RP), body pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role-emotion (RE), and mental health (MH) in first interview. The second interview also revealed similar Cronbach’s alpha values.  The SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language also showed a very good repeatability between the first interview and the second interview, with Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from 0.6 to 0.9. Conclusions: From this study, it can be concluded that SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language is highly reliable and repeatable. As such, it is a very useful tool to measure health outcomes among low vision patients. However, future study of low vision patients from the rural population and the age range that represent youth, working group, and elderly is necessary to obtain better outcome of SF-36 Bahasa Melayu-Language information of the health status of low vision patients.