Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)

The Nottingham Health Profile asks how a person feels rather than what a clinician can measure. Its items came from more than two thousand statements collected from over seven hundred patients describing what poor health was actually like for them, which is why the wording is so plain — "everything is an effort," "the days seem to drag," "I've forgotten what it's like to enjoy myself."

Part I contains 38 yes-or-no statements across six areas: energy, pain, emotional reactions, sleep, social isolation, and physical mobility. Each item carries a weight reflecting how serious that problem was judged to be, and each area scores 0 to 100, where 0 means no problems.

Licensing Notes: A license required, but cost not publicly available.

Learn More: Two things worth knowing. Part II is optional: seven further statements ask whether health is affecting paid employment, jobs around the house, social life, home life, sex life, hobbies, and holidays. It can be omitted without affecting Part I results. And the NHP has substantial ceiling effects — in one disabled-population study, more than 70% of respondents scored at the ceiling on physical mobility, pain, and social isolation, meaning the profile struggles to distinguish among people with milder problems. It detects severe distress better than it grades everyday difficulty.