RAND SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36)

Quick 36-item health status check across physical, emotional, and social function over the past four weeks.

Most items use the past four weeks; item 2 separately compares your health with one year ago.
The report keeps all eight RAND-36 domains visible and marks the profile, physical, and mental means as within-tool summaries.
Your responses stay only in this browser unless you export or share the encoded result.

{{ progressPercent }}%

{{ answeredCount }}/{{ questions.length }} answered

{{ currentQuestion.id }}. {{ currentQuestion.text }}:

{{ question.id }}. {{ question.navText }}

RAND-36 health profile

Within-tool mean across the eight RAND-36 domains; item 2 stays separate as a one-year change note.

Physical {{ format(physicalMean) }} Mental {{ format(mentalMean) }} {{ balanceLabel }} Change vs prior: {{ healthChangeShortLabel }} Best anchor: {{ topDomainRow ? topDomainRow.name : '—' }} Top burden: {{ lowDomainRow ? lowDomainRow.name : '—' }}

RAND-36 Domain Function Ladder

Lower-scored domains appear first, stronger anchors appear later, and the dashed line marks the within-tool profile mean.

Change and balance context

{{ fact }}

Higher-burden vs better-function anchors

#	Better-function anchor	Lower-function area	Why it stands out	Next move	Copy
{{ row.id }}	{{ row.anchorLabel }}	{{ row.focusLabel }}	{{ row.whyItMatters }}	{{ row.nextMove }}

Top priorities

{{ item }}

Practical adjustments

{{ item }}

What to bring into follow-up

{{ item }}

When to bring in extra help: {{ followUpNote }}

Answered-item review

The response ledger keeps every recoded item visible. Item 2 remains a separate health-change note and does not enter the eight domain means.

#	Domain	Item	Response	0-100	Profile use	Copy
{{ row.id }}	{{ row.domainLabel }}	{{ row.text }}	{{ row.answer }}	{{ row.scoreText }}	{{ row.profileUse }}

JSON snapshot

The payload includes the function/QoL subtype, domain rankings, follow-up lists, and the answered-item ledger.

Tags: Psychometrics

Export to PDF Fullscreen

Include query parameters

Embed:

Customize embed code

Include query parameters

Wrap embed in collapsible toggle

Collapse panel by default

Hide card frame (bare iframe)

Loading behavior

Width

Height

Aspect ratio (width : height)

Max height (optional)

Collapsible heading

Collapsible description (optional)

Allow fullscreen

Referrer policy

Sandbox tokens

Health-related quality-of-life surveys are meant to show how health is shaping ordinary living, not just whether a diagnosis is present. The RAND 36-Item Health Survey, often discussed alongside the SF-36, measures physical functioning, role limits, pain, general health, energy, emotional well-being, and social functioning so the result can be read as a profile rather than a single symptom score.

That profile matters because recovery and strain are often uneven. Walking may improve before fatigue lifts. Pain may ease while work reliability or social participation still lag. A broad function survey makes those mismatches visible and gives a clearer starting point for follow-up conversations, rehabilitation tracking, chronic illness review, or repeat check-ins after treatment.

The survey also asks whether health feels better, worse, or about the same as one year earlier. That comparison is useful context, but it answers a different question from the eight current-status domains. The yearly item describes direction of change. The domains describe where daily life is being helped or limited right now.

This kind of result is informational, not diagnostic. Lower scores can reflect many different causes, and higher scores do not rule out a problem that still needs attention. If symptoms are worsening quickly, daily tasks are becoming unsafe, or the answers point to a major decline, direct medical or mental-health care matters more than another questionnaire.

Technical Details:

RAND's scoring instructions use the same 36 questions as the MOS SF-36, but RAND applies its own scoring procedure and labels the scored instrument RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0. Each answered item is recoded so that higher always means better health status, then items belonging to the same concept are averaged into eight scale scores from 0 to 100. Item 2, the one-year health-change question, is reported separately rather than averaged into those eight scales.

The response sets are not all scored the same way. Three-level physical-function items map to 0, 50, and 100. Yes-or-no role-limitation items map to 0 or 100. Five-point health and interference items map to 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 in one direction or the reverse, and six-point frequency items map to 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 or the reverse. The reversal matters because questions about tiredness, nervousness, low mood, or poor health beliefs have to end up in the same higher-is-better direction as questions about calm, energy, or good health.

Diagram showing thirty-six answered items becoming question-specific 0 to 100 scores, eight domain means, a separate one-year health-change note, and transparent summary means.

Formula Core

Domain scores are simple means of the recoded items inside each domain, and the displayed summary means are simple averages of domain scores.

D_{j} = \frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n_{j}} R_{i}}{n_{j}}

A = \frac{\sum_{j = 1}^{8} D_{j}}{8} P = \frac{PF + RP + Pain + GH}{4} M = \frac{EWB + RE + SF + EF}{4}

R_i is the recoded 0 to 100 value for item i, n_j is the number of items in domain j, D_j is one domain score, A is the eight-domain profile mean, P is the displayed physical mean, and M is the displayed mental mean. The eight domain scores are the formal RAND outputs. The profile mean, physical mean, and mental mean are extra transparent summaries that help comparison here, but they are not official RAND or SF-36 total or component summary scores.

RAND-36 domains and summary groupings used in this assessment
Domain	Items	Grouped here as	What a higher score means
Physical Functioning	10	Physical mean	Less limitation in movement and self-care tasks.
Role-Physical	4	Physical mean	Fewer activity limits caused by physical health.
Pain	2	Physical mean	Less pain and less pain interference with work or home tasks.
General Health	5	Physical mean	A stronger overall view of current health and health expectations.
Emotional Well-being	5	Mental mean	More calm, less nervousness, less low mood, and more happiness.
Role-Emotional	3	Mental mean	Fewer activity limits caused by emotional problems.
Social Functioning	2	Mental mean	Less interference with normal social activity.
Energy / Fatigue	4	Mental mean	More vitality and less tiredness or weariness.

Reading cues and score boundaries used in this assessment
Reading cue	Boundary	Meaning here	Main limit
Higher burden	Domain score < 40	The domain is far below full function and usually deserves first follow-up.	This is a local reading aid, not a universal clinical cutoff.
Lower function	40 ≤ domain score < 60	The domain is weaker than desired and still needs review.	The label does not identify the cause of the limitation.
Mixed function	60 ≤ domain score < 75	The domain is neither clearly weak nor clearly strong.	Borderline scores are best checked against the contributing items.
Better-function anchor	Domain score ≥ 75	The domain can serve as a stronger comparison point on the same run.	A strong anchor does not cancel a weak domain elsewhere.
Domains below 50	Count of domains with score < 50	This count flags how many domains fall below the page's broader burden marker.	A score of exactly 50 no longer enters this count, even though it is still not strong.

Everyday Use & Decision Guide:

A strong first run uses one consistent frame of reference for all 36 answers. Most questions ask about the past four weeks, while question 2 asks for a comparison with one year ago. If some answers reflect today's flare and others reflect a different month, the profile becomes harder to trust and harder to compare later.

When the report appears, start with RAND-36 health profile and then RAND-36 Domain Function Ladder. The summary box tells you the eight-domain average, the physical and mental means, the one-year change label, the strongest domain, and the weakest domain. The chart then sorts the eight domains from lowest to highest and marks the profile mean with a dashed line.

Higher-burden vs better-function anchors is the quickest way to compare the weakest domain with the strongest one.
Top priorities, Practical adjustments, and What to bring into follow-up turn the pattern into a short action list.
Answered-item review is the trust check. It shows every item, its recoded 0 to 100 value, and whether the answer feeds a domain score or only the separate health-change note.
JSON snapshot and the CSV, DOCX, and chart downloads are record-keeping tools, not new interpretations.

A common misread is to stop at the average. A profile mean in the 60s can still hide one domain below 40, and a small gap between the physical and mental means does not mean both broad areas are doing well. Before trusting any headline label, check whether the weakest domain matches the item rows that created it.

Scoring happens in the browser, but privacy is not automatic once something is saved or shared. Downloaded files preserve the answers, and a populated link can preserve the encoded response pattern, so saved outputs deserve the same care you would give to personal health notes.

Step-by-Step Guide:

The workflow is short once you know which panel answers which question.

Press Begin Assessment. The progress bar, question text, and question list should appear immediately. If results do not appear later on, the first thing to check is whether the progress bar has reached 100%.
Answer all 36 questions using the same time frame for every item. The question list marks completed answers with a green check, so it is easy to find any missing response.
Read RAND-36 health profile first. Note the Physical mean, Mental mean, Change vs prior, Best anchor, and Top burden badges before you look at exports.
Inspect RAND-36 Domain Function Ladder next. The lowest bars appear first, the dashed line marks the profile mean, and the export buttons let you save PNG, WebP, JPEG, or CSV only after the ranking looks believable.
Use Higher-burden vs better-function anchors, Top priorities, and Practical adjustments to turn the score pattern into follow-up questions and day-to-day adjustments.
Open Answered-item review and JSON snapshot if you need an audit trail. Verify that question 2 is marked Trend only and does not feed the eight domain averages, then use Copy CSV, Download CSV, Export DOCX, Copy JSON, or Download JSON only after the pattern looks accurate.

Interpreting Results:

Read the domain pattern before the summary means. RAND-36 is built around eight scale scores, so the weakest domain usually says more about current strain than the overall average.

A domain score below 40 is the page's clearest signal of higher burden and usually deserves first follow-up.
Scores from 40 to 59.9 still indicate lower function, while scores from 60 to 74.9 are mixed rather than clearly strong.
A score of 75 or higher marks a better-function anchor, but an anchor is only a comparison point. It does not cancel a weak domain elsewhere.
The cross-domain burden count uses a separate rule: only domains below 50 increase the domains below 50 tally.
Change vs prior comes only from question 2. Treat it as context for direction of change, not as a ninth domain score.

The best verification step is simple. If a low domain surprises you, open Answered-item review and check whether the contributing items point in the same direction and were answered with the intended time frame in mind. Repeated patterns across runs matter more than one- or two-point movement in an average.

Worked Examples:

One weak domain inside a decent average

A person reports Physical Functioning 85, General Health 70, and Emotional Well-being 72, but Pain 35. The profile mean still looks serviceable, yet the real story is pain-limited daily function. The strongest anchor is mobility, not proof that the overall month was fine.

Several domains below 50

Another run shows General Health 30, Energy / Fatigue 35, Social Functioning 40, and Pain 45, with no domain at 75 or above. Four domains are below 50, so the result is better read as a broad function gap than as one isolated problem. That pattern supports broader follow-up instead of a single narrow fix.

A borderline score near the page thresholds

In a repeat check, Pain rises from 48 to 50, Social Functioning sits at 74, and Physical Functioning reaches 76. Pain no longer counts toward the domains below 50 tally, but it still sits in the lower-function band. Social Functioning is still mixed at 74, while Physical Functioning becomes a better-function anchor at 76. Small boundary crossings are real, but they matter most when the underlying answers and daily-life pattern improved too.

FAQ:

Does RAND-36 give one official total score?

No. RAND's scoring instructions focus on eight scale scores plus a separate health-change item. The profile mean, physical mean, and mental mean shown here are transparent summaries added for easier comparison.

Is RAND-36 the same thing as SF-36?

They use the same 36 questions, but RAND's official scoring instructions say the RAND 36-Item Health Survey uses its own scoring procedure and should be named accordingly. That is why the item set is familiar while the scoring label is RAND-36.

Why can the one-year change answer look better when one domain is still low?

Because the questions are measuring different things. The one-year item asks about overall direction of change, while the domains describe current function and well-being. A person can feel improved overall and still have one area that continues to lag.

Can I compare a new run with an older one?

Yes, but keep the comparison disciplined. Use the same recall frame, answer the same full survey, and compare the same weak domains before reacting to the average alone. The one-year item will still be a separate context note rather than part of the domain averages.

Why am I not seeing the chart or summary yet?

All 36 items have to be answered before the report renders. If the progress bar is below 100% or one question in the list lacks a completion check, finish that item first and the summary, chart, and export panels should appear.

Where do my answers go when I use this assessment?

Scoring runs in the browser. The part to watch is what you save or share afterward. Exported files keep the answers, and a populated link can carry the encoded response pattern, so shared outputs can still expose sensitive information.

Glossary:

Health-related quality of life: A broad description of how health affects daily function, comfort, mood, energy, and participation.
Domain score: The 0 to 100 score for one RAND-36 concept such as pain, social functioning, or physical functioning.
Profile mean: The simple average of the eight RAND-36 domain scores shown in this assessment.
Better-function anchor: A domain score of 75 or higher, used here as a stronger comparison point inside the same run.
Health-change item: The separate RAND-36 question that compares current health with one year ago.