The self‐administered comorbidity questionnaire: A new method to assess comorbidity for clinical and health services research

To develop the Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire (SCQ) and assess its psychometric properties, including the predictive validity of the instrument, as reflected by its association with health status and health care utilization after 1 year.

A cross-sectional comparison of the SCQ with a standard, chart abstraction-based measure (Charlson Index) was conducted on 170 inpatients from medical and surgical care units. The association of the SCQ with the chart-based comorbidity instrument and health status (short form 36) was evaluated cross sectionally. The association between these measures and health status and resource utilization was assessed after 1 year.