Spanish version of the Nottingham Health Profile: translation and preliminary validity

We report the transfer into Spanish of a multi-dimensional measure of perceived health originally developed in Great Britain, the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), and an assessment of the preliminary validity of the version is presented. Translation of the questionnaire was obtained from experts and from a Spanish monolingual lay group. Construct validity of the version was assessed in two studies: testing relationship of NHP scores to other self-reported measures of health in a general population survey; and comparing NHP scores for a group of frequent users and for a group of non-users of primary health services. Mean scores of NHP dimensions were higher for people with poorer self-reported health and higher for the frequent health services users than for the non-users. Findings suggest that the Spanish version of the NHP is culturally equivalent to the original questionnaire, and has a similar level of construct validity. Nevertheless, further research on reliability and on the weighting system is required to establish the equivalence of the Spanish version definitively.