Correlated physical and mental health summary scores for the SF-36 and SF-12 Health Survey, V.1

Table 4 Hypothetical example comparing SF-36 orthogonal versus oblique scoring methods for the PCS and MCS

	Physical Health Scale z-scores = 1	Physical Health Scale z-scores = 0.3
	Mental Health Scale z-scores = 0.3	Mental Health Scale z-scores = 1
PCS_uc	62.2	50.1
PCS_c	60.0	55.1
MCS_uc	49.6	62.8
MCS_c	54.6	60.3

Summary score results if the scales that load heavily on physical health (physical health, role physical, bodily pain, general health) have z-scores of 1 and the scales that load heavily on mental health (vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and emotional well-being) have z-scores equal to 0.3. Also illustrated are the summary scores if the z-scores for scales loading heavily on physical health are equal to 0.3 and z-scores for scales loading heavily on mental health are equal to 1.

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