Objective: To test the reliability of the Danish version of the Nottingham Health Profile.
Design: Test-retest reliability with an interval of four weeks between administrations of the measure.
Setting: Copenhagen.
Participants: Seventy patients suffering from osteoarthrosis, living at home and awaiting hip-replacement operation. The patients' ages ranged from 37 to 90 years, with a median of 72 years.
Outcome measure: The Danish version of the Nottingham Health Profile, a measure of perceived health status, widely used in Europe. The measure consists of six sections; pain, physical mobility, energy level, sleep, social isolation, and emotional reactions.
Results: The respondents scored highly on the measure, particularly on the pain, physical mobility, and energy sections. No major differences in scores associated with age or sex were found. The test-retest correlation coefficients obtained for the six sections were high (ranging from 0.76 to 0.86) and comparable with those found in Sweden and the UK. The test-retest correlation for the whole measure was 0.93.
Conclusion: The Danish version of the Nottingham Health Profile has been shown to be reliable and to be acceptable and relevant to patients with chronic disability. Should the formal tests of validity currently in progress prove satisfactory, Danish clinicians and researchers will have a valuable tool available for gaining insight into the impact of illness and its treatment on patients.