The SF-36 is also commonly utilized in health psychology research to examine the burden of disease.
[1] The original SF-36 stemmed from the Medical Outcome Study, MOS, which was conducted by the RAND Corporation.
[2] If having only adequate physical and mental health summary scores is of interest, "then the SF12 may be the instrument of choice".
Scoring of the general health and pain scales is different between the versions.
[5] The eight sections are: Instructions for converting the individual scores into z-scores and to provide standardised combined scores (mean 50, standard deviation 10) for several populations (Australian women, combined or in three different age groups, also the general Australian and US population - for example younger people have better physical score averages) are on the website of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health.