Development of a health conception scale.

Described in this paper are the development, reliability, and validity of an instrument, the Laffrey Health Conception Scale to measure individual perceptions of the meaning of health. The instrument measures four dimensions of health conception: clinical, functional/role performance, adaptive, and eudaimonistic. A score is obtained for each dimension as well as a total score for the four dimensions. The high levels of reliability and validity in preliminary testing indicate that the instrument warrants further development and use with different populations.