The factor structure and cross-sectional distributional properties of the Beth Israel/UCLA Functional Status Questionnaire.

The functional status of ambulatory patients is an important correlate of their emotional and physical well-being and is subject to influence by the delivery of health care. First, the present study obtains a profile on the FSQ for a large sample of young, healthy adults (N = 508 college undergraduates), for use as an "empirical standard" against which to evaluate the effect of disease or injury on an individual's functional status. Second, cross-sectional analyses contrast distributional features of responses to the FSQ between (a) the present younger, healthy sample and (b) a previously published, older ambulatory patient sample. These analyses suggest that the FSQ has acceptable discriminant validity for intergroup comparisons. Finally, confirmatory structural analyses suggest that the theoretical six-factor model hypothesized to underlie responses to the FSQ has a modest, yet acceptable, goodness of fit to actual data.