, Volume 54, Issue 2, pp 55-60

The reliability of the Minimum European Health Module

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Abstract

Objectives:

The Minimum European Health Module (MEHM) consists of 3 global questions concerning 3 health domains: self-perceived health, chronic conditions and long-term activity limitation. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of the MEHM.

Methods:

Participants of the Belgian Food Consumption Survey were interviewed twice: 170 individuals were selected for the MEHM reliability evaluation. For each of the 3 questions Pearson and Kappa coefficients were estimated. Analyses were stratified by gender, age, education, language and time between the interviews.

Results:

The Pearson correlations are between 0.73 and 0.81. The Kappa estimates are good or excellent: 0.74 (self-perceived health), 0.77 (chronic conditions) and 0.68 (activity limitation). Also stratified analyses indicated in general an acceptable reliability.

Conclusion:

The MEHM has an acceptable reliability.

Submitted: 10 December 2007; revised: 13 May 2008; accepted: 02 October 2008