The Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) is a general

patient reported outcome A patient-reported outcome (PRO) is a health outcome directly reported by the patient who experienced it. It stands in contrast to an outcome reported by someone else, such as a physician-reported outcome, a nurse-reported outcome, and so on. PRO ...

measure which seeks to measure subjective health status. It is a

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...

designed to measure a patient’s view of their own health status, in a number of areas. It can be completed in 5 minutes. The NHP consists of two parts. The first part focuses on health and comprises 38 items which deal with pain, energy, sleep, mobility, emotional reaction and social isolation. The second part focuses on life areas affected and consists of 7 items which deal with problems regarding occupation, housework, social life, family life, sexual function, hobbies and holidays. The second part of the NHP is optional and can be omitted without ruining the test results. All questions have only yes/no answer options and each section score is weighted. The higher the score, the greater the number and severity of problems. The highest score in any section is 100. __TOC__

Development

Work on the NHP began in 1975 at the Department of Community Health at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

. The principle researchers involved in the project were Sonja M. Hunt, J. McEwen and S.P. McKenna. 2200 statements describing the effects of poor health were collected from over 700 patients, which covered social, psychological, physical and behavioural sectors. Key concepts were identified from these statements, and many were removed due to redundancy. 138 statements remained, and a series of studies were conducted between 1976 and 1978 in order to refine the number of statements to a further extent. The studies were conducted on a wide range of patients in order to ensure the general efficacy of the NHP. In 1978, a grant was received from the

Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it maintains a headqua ...

in order to further develop the NHP into a population survey tool. This meant making the profile easier to read, quick and simple to answer and commonly understood. After further testing, statements that fit these criteria were retained and this resulted in the 45 item questionnaire. Current copyright of the NHP is owned by Galen Research.

International Use

Since its development, the NHP has been used by a number of organisations worldwide. The NHP has been translated into 24 languages other than UK English which include Spanish, Danish, French and German. It has been used in research studies worldwide in order to determine the effect a given disease has on a patient’s quality of life. Examples of such studies are investigations into the effect of

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brain tumour A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cancero ...

patients,

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in post-polio patients and the sleep, fragility and cognition of the elderly. The profile has also been utilized in clinical research studies in order to determine whether a treatment is effective. If a patient’s score on the questionnaire is significantly different after the treatment, this indicates that the treatment has had an effect. Clinical research studies where the NHP was utilized include investigations into

erythropoiesis-stimulating agents Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA) are medications which stimulate the bone marrow to erythropoeisis, make red blood cells. They are used to treat anemia due to end stage kidney disease, chemotherapy, major surgery, or certain treatments in ...

glucocorticoid Glucocorticoids (or, less commonly, glucocorticosteroids) are a class of corticosteroids, which are a class of steroid hormones. Glucocorticoids are corticosteroids that bind to the glucocorticoid receptor that is present in almost every vertebra ...

replacement therapy and

transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS or TNS) is a device that produces mild electric current to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes. TENS, by definition, covers the complete range of transcutaneously applied currents u ...

for

tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...

References

{{reflist Clinical research