Subjective health in older people

The Nottingham Health Profile (NHP [1]) is a widely used instrument to measure subjective health in clinical research. However, there are no age-specific norms for older adults in Germany. The present study was conducted to analyze the psychometric properties of the German version of the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in older people. Age-specific reference values for the elderly are presented. Subjects were drawn from the general population of older German people aged 61 to 95 years (n=630; mean age 69.5 years; 55.7% female). Five of the six NHP scales revealed a good internal consistency (.70≤α≤.92). The subscales (with the exception of the subscale social isolation) showed moderate relations with instruments measuring somatization disorders and subjective body complaints (Screening for Somatoform Disorders SOMS [2]); Giessen Subjective Complaints List GBB-24 [3]). Compared to younger subjects, subjective health decreases with age. Therefore age-specific reference data for older people are necessary. Differential reference data are reported for four age groups above 60 years of age and for male and female older people. The outcome confirms that the NHP is a reliable, valid instrument to measure subjective health in older people.