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.