FEEDBACK Emendations to the Annotated Guide
In reviewing the special issue of Health Services Research on health status indexes (Winter 1976), I note that some of Robert Berg's comments about the Sickness Impact Profile on page 347 are incorrect. Evaluation of combinations of items was made and reported (Bergner et al., International Journal of Health Services, Summer 1976) prior to the Phoenix conference. Study of the validity of the SIP using several different estimates of health status was made in 1974. The results of this study appeared in Medical Care, January 1976. Both these studies provide evidence of the construct and criterion validity of the SIP. Estimates of SIP score reliability and item reliability based on 24-hour tests-retests, and of internal consistency, are likewise available and published (Pollard et al., Medical Care, February 1976). Analyses of more detailed studies of validity based on a large random sample of subjects and on specially selected patient groups are now under way. These analyses should provide data on specificity and sensitivity that heretofore have not been available on any health status index. -Marilyn Bergner Sickness Impact Profile Project School of Public Health and Community Medicine University of Washington
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
204
In reviewing the special issue of Health Services Research on health status indexes (Winter 1976), I note that some of Robert Berg's comments about the Sickness Impact Profile on page 347 are incorrect. Evaluation of combinations of items was made and reported (Bergner et al., International Journal of Health Services, Summer 1976) prior to the Phoenix conference. Study of the validity of the SIP using several different estimates of health status was made in 1974. The results of this study appeared in Medical Care, January 1976. Both these studies provide evidence of the construct and criterion validity of the SIP. Estimates of SIP score reliability and item reliability based on 24-hour tests-retests, and of internal consistency, are likewise available and published (Pollard et al., Medical Care, February 1976). Analyses of more detailed studies of validity based on a large random sample of subjects and on specially selected patient groups are now under way. These analyses should provide data on specificity and sensitivity that heretofore have not been available on any health status index. -Marilyn Bergner Sickness Impact Profile Project School of Public Health and Community Medicine University of Washington
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
204
