Developing a generic health status measure for use in a computer-based outcomes infrastructure.

This descriptive, correlational study was designed to determine the sensitivity of a generic health status instrument to patient population and to time. The study sample included adult patients undergoing total joint replacement (TJR), adult patients in acute congestive heart failure (CHF), and pediatric patients receiving chemotherapy (PediOnc). A 2 x 3 (population x time) ANOVA for TJR and CHF demonstrated a significant main effect of time (F = 8.0, p = .0006) and a significant interaction effect between time and population (F = 14.4, p < .0001) for functional status. In the PediOnc subsample (HSOD child version), the highest scores for all HSOD factors with the exception of functional status were at Time 3. There was also a significant main effect of time on health care involvement, on the caregiver factor, and the family factor. These results support the sensitivity of the HSOD to patient population and to time.