Reliability of a visual analog version of the QuickDASH.

BACKGROUND The QuickDASH, an abbreviated form of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire, uses a graded-adjectives ordinal measurement response scale. In order to improve the sensitivity of the measure and to make it compatible with widely used measures of pain and disability, a visual analog scale version was developed. The present study investigated the reliability of the new version over time when used for the evaluation of patients undergoing treatment. METHODS A test-retest model with a two-day interval was used to evaluate a sample of thirty-eight consecutive patients in an interdisciplinary tertiary rehabilitation setting who were identified as having an upper extremity disorder. RESULTS The intraclass correlation coefficient indicating test-retest reliability was 0.90 for the eleven-item QuickDASH visual analog scale questionnaire (without the work component) and 0.94 for the fifteen-item questionnaire (with the work component), neither of which was significantly different from the results reported for the original questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS The QuickDASH visual analog scale questionnaire has acceptable reliability over time, and it can be used as an alternative to the original QuickDASH.