Health Survey Refreshed: 28-Item CPHQ Shaped by Diverse Voices

The team behind the CPHQ started with a 32‑item questionnaire that aimed to capture a wide view of health. It combined ideas from Positive Health and the Capability Approach and included input from stakeholders and everyday users. However, professionals in health care, welfare and policy were not part of the early work, so their views were missing.

To fix this, the researchers held nine focus groups and one interview. Seventy‑six people took part, ranging from doctors and social workers to patients and citizens from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. They used an adapted COMET method and a member check to make sure changes made sense. Some items were dropped, merged or added, and the final version has 28 questions. The main ideas guiding the edits were to avoid bossy wording, to include items that people could answer based on how they feel, and to keep questions about daily functionings. The group disagreed on a few items about exclusion, political voice and belonging, so those were debated and decided later.

The new 28‑item CPHQ is now ready for use across many fields. It reflects a broad set of perspectives and should be easier for different organizations to adopt. More studies will test the tool in other groups and settings, and the team hopes it can be shortened even further in the future.

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