The Health Perceptions Questionnaire is a self-reporting instrument consisting of 32 questions that are divided into 8 subscales related to a person's perception of his or her health. A subset of 22 questions constitutes the General Health Rating Index, and smaller subsets may be used for faster evaluations. The questionnaires are simple and fast to administer, and have been widely studied.
8 subscales:
(1) current health
(2) prior health
(3) resistance or susceptibility to illness
(4) health outlook
(5) health worry or concern
(6) sickness orientation
(7) rejection of sick role
(8) attitude about going to the doctor
|
Response |
Points if Positive |
Points if Negative |
|
definitely true |
5 |
1 |
|
mostly true |
4 |
2 |
|
don't know |
3 |
3 |
|
mostly false |
2 |
4 |
|
definitely false |
1 |
5 |
|
Subscale |
Items |
Lowest Score |
Highest Score |
|
current health |
A (+), D (+), I (-), L (-), Q (+), V (+), Z (-), DD (-), FF (+) |
9 |
45 |
|
prior health |
K (-), S (+), BB (+) |
3 |
15 |
|
resistance/susceptibility |
C (-), G (+), O (+), CC (-) |
4 |
20 |
|
health outlook |
E (-), J (+), W (+), R (-) |
4 |
20 |
|
health worry/concern |
F (-), M (+), T (-), X (+) |
4 |
20 |
|
sickness orientation |
P (+), Y (+) |
2 |
10 |
|
rejection of sick role |
B (+), N (+), U (+), EE (+) |
4 |
20 |
|
attitude about going to the doctor |
H (-), AA (+) |
2 |
10 |
Scoring:
(1) 6 of the 8 subscales contain both positive and negative responses; 2 of the 8 subscales (rejection of sick role, sickness orientation) contain only positive responses
(2) for each subscale a higher score reflects more of the quality implied in the name
(3) health worry/concern and sickness orientation are negative in theme, so that a positive response indicates a more negative attitude
(4) for questions with a positive direction, responses are graded from 5 (definitely true) to 1 (definitely false)
(5) for questions with a negative direction, responses are graded from 1 (definitely true) to 5 (definitely false); this is equivalent to subtracting the "positive direction score" from 6
General Health Rating Index
Question composition:
(1) 22 questions: A, C, D, E, F, G, I, J, K, L, M, O, Q, R, S, V, W, Z, BB, CC, DD, FF
(2) lowest score 22
(3) highest score 110
Shorter variants:
(1) The 9 questions of the current health subscale (A, D, I, L, Q, V, Z, DD, FF)
(2) 4 questions: I, Q, V, Z
Converting Raw Score to 0-100 Scale
transformed score in 0 to 100 range =
= (((actual raw score) - (lowest possible raw score)) / ((highest possible raw score) - (lowest possible raw score))) * 100
