[The Duke Health Profile (DUKE)]

The Duke Health Profile is a 17-item generic questionnaire instrument designed to measure adult self-reported functional health status quantitatively during a one-week time window. It is appropriate for both patient and non-patient adult populations. It can be self-administered by the individual respondent or administered by another person. The administration time is less than five minutes. It is crucial that each question is answered. There are 11 scales. Six scales (i.e., physical health, mental health, social health, general health, perceived health, self-esteem) measure function, with high scores indicating better health. Five scales (i.e., anxiety, depression, anxiety-depression, pain disability) measure dysfunction, with high scores indicating greater dysfunction. Most extensive use has been in family practice patients with the broadest spectrum of diagnoses, but it has also been used in patient populations with specific diagnoses such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, endstage renal disease, ischemic disease, and impotence. Both internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and temporal stability (test-retest) testing have supported reliability of the DUKE. Validity has been supported for the DUKE scales by: (a) comparison of the DUKE scores with scores of other health measures for the same patients, (b) comparison of DUKE scores between patient groups having different clinical diagnostic profiles and severity of illness, (c) prediction of health-related outcomes by DUKE scores. Convergent and discriminant validity have been shown when comparing with other instruments.