ABSTRACT
The growing interest in the measurement of health status from the perspective of the patient has led to a large number of increasingly sophisticated instruments being developed for this purpose. However despite this, and perhaps in part because of this, health status measures are not routinely used by providers of health care in the assessment of patients. This may be attributed to lack of knowledge of the existence of such measures, scepticism by clinicians of the usefulness of such measures, and also concern as to the amount of time and resources needed to routinely administer and score such questionnaires. This chapter will address the issue as to whether single item global health questions can provide valid and useful information, without consuming the amount of time and resources needed for more elaborate measures.
