OBJECTIVES: The 36-item short-form survey (SF-36) is one of the most used generic health status measures. This study aimed to derive SF-36 Hungarian population norms.

METHODS: In November 2020, 1700 respondents representative of the Hungarian adult general population completed an online cross-sectional survey, including the SF-36v1. SF-36 covers eight health domains, physical functioning (PF), social functioning (SF), role-physical (RP), bodily pain (BP), mental health (MH), role-emotional (RE), vitality (VT) and general health (GH). SF-36 mental health composite (MCS) and physical health composite scores (PCS) were generated. Population norms were computed by gender and age groups. Independent t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare mean scores between genders and age groups, where applicable.

RESULTS: The sample showed good representativeness in terms of age groups, gender, employment, marital status, region, place of residence and prevalence of chronic health conditions. Males reported better health status in multiple domains: PF (male: 84.8, female: 79.3), SF (male: 83.4, female: 77.1), RP (male: 79.2, female: 71.3), BP (male: 80.6, female: 72.7), MH (male: 73.8, female: 66.9), RE (male: 81.2, female: 71.9), and VT (male: 66.7, female: 58.5) (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the mean scores for the GH domain (male: 59.9, female: 59.2) (p=0.567). For the PF, RP, and MH domains mean scores significantly decreased with age, while the MH domain showed a trend of improving health status with advancing age (p<0.001). Males demonstrated higher scores in MCS (76.3) and PCS (76.1) compared to females (MCS: 68.6, PCS: 70.6) (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results of this study contribute to help clinicians and decision-makers to benchmark patients’ SF-36 responses in Hungary.