Cook County Hospital's General Medicine Clinic, an adult primary care clinic, draws patients from the public hospital’s population of high risk, medically indigent Cook County residents. This population group is of interest because relative increases in rates of potentially preventable morbidity and mortality are both large and occur at younger ages and corresponding benefits of preventive health measures could be large. The clinic was sampled over twenty weeks. Patients completed self-administered forms including visit form and the SF-12 survey, a shortened version of the SF-36, scored as two scales, a "Mental Component" (MC) and a "Physical Component" (PC). The visit form elicited self-report of chronic disease status, uptake of adult immunizations, cancer screening measures (colorectal FOBT, mammography, PAP), smoking, problems with medications, etc. This patient sample reflects a population in poor physical health, mean PC score=38.8 (N with valid SF-12 scores=495), significantly below the general population. In contrast, their mean MC score (51.0) is comparable to the general population. However, that "normal" mean masks a notable minority with depressed MC scores. Further analysis of SF-12 scores reveal significant associations between self-reported uptake of preventive health measures and higher MC scores, while smoking is associated with lower MC scores and lower preventive health measures uptake. Along with observations regarding body pain, its correlates, and comparisons with doctors’ problem lists for a subset of these patients, these associations may provide insight as to why such self-assessed health measures have been found to be better predictors of mortality than doctors’ assessments.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify the SF-12 quality of life survey and compare it to the original SF-36 survey. 2. Describe SF-12 scores and associations with preventive medicine measures uptake in a high risk, medically indigent adult primary care clinic population. 3. Discuss possible mechanisms by which such quality of life indicators predict morbidity and mortality as well or better than physical health assessments by medical providers.
Keywords: Preventive Medicine, Quality of Life
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Cook County Hospital General Medicine Clinic
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: partial salary support via public agency project funding