The study evaluated the SF-36 health survey questionnaire in two general practices in Sheffield. The SF-36 is a self-administered questionnaire with 36 items that assesses health on eight dimensions, including physical and mental health. The study aimed to test the acceptability, validity, and reliability of the SF-36 and compare it with the Nottingham health profile. A total of 1980 patients aged 16-74 years were randomly selected and surveyed. The response rate was high (83%), with over 95% completion of each dimension. The SF-36 showed good reliability, with Cronbach's α > 0.85 and reliability coefficients > 0.75 for all dimensions except social functioning. The SF-36 was able to detect low levels of ill health in patients who had scored 0 on the Nottingham health profile. The study found that the SF-36 had good construct validity, with scores reflecting sociodemographic characteristics and health status. The SF-36 was also found to have better discriminatory power than the Nottingham health profile, with less skewed distributions of scores. The study concluded that the SF-36 is a promising new instrument for measuring health perception in a general population, being easy to use, acceptable to patients, and fulfilling stringent criteria of reliability and validity. However, further research is needed to determine its applicability in other contexts and with different disease groups. The study also found that the SF-36 was more suitable than the Nottingham health profile for measuring health in populations with relatively minor conditions, such as in general practice or the community.The study evaluated the SF-36 health survey questionnaire in two general practices in Sheffield. The SF-36 is a self-administered questionnaire with 36 items that assesses health on eight dimensions, including physical and mental health. The study aimed to test the acceptability, validity, and reliability of the SF-36 and compare it with the Nottingham health profile. A total of 1980 patients aged 16-74 years were randomly selected and surveyed. The response rate was high (83%), with over 95% completion of each dimension. The SF-36 showed good reliability, with Cronbach's α > 0.85 and reliability coefficients > 0.75 for all dimensions except social functioning. The SF-36 was able to detect low levels of ill health in patients who had scored 0 on the Nottingham health profile. The study found that the SF-36 had good construct validity, with scores reflecting sociodemographic characteristics and health status. The SF-36 was also found to have better discriminatory power than the Nottingham health profile, with less skewed distributions of scores. The study concluded that the SF-36 is a promising new instrument for measuring health perception in a general population, being easy to use, acceptable to patients, and fulfilling stringent criteria of reliability and validity. However, further research is needed to determine its applicability in other contexts and with different disease groups. The study also found that the SF-36 was more suitable than the Nottingham health profile for measuring health in populations with relatively minor conditions, such as in general practice or the community.