Abstract Changing patterns of concern in medicine and health care have interacted with philosophic trends in social sciences and politics to create demands for new directions in the measurement of health. Traditional indicators such as morbidity and mortality are seen to require supplementation by more subjective assessments of need. The addition of subjective data, collected in a standardized way could enable those concerned to delineate more closely the needs and problems of the community. The practical development of a subjective health indicator is described. The ultimate objective is to produce an instrument which can be used as a population survey tool, where the information obtained could add a new dimension to traditional indices of health. Studies carried out over the past four years have led to the construction of an indicator in the form of a profile which has been shown to provide valid measures of perceived health status and to be acceptable to respondents.
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