The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire and Its Manchester-Modified Version

摘要

Injuries and disease commonly affect the upper limb and these can significantly affect the ability of an individual to perform activities of daily living. The use of regional outcome measures or scoring systems is important as it allows comparison between these injuries and disease, and allows clinicians to assess progression and the effects of different treatment modalities. A patient-completed questionnaire is efficient in terms of time and resources, and allows the assessment of outcome without the need to attend an outpatient clinic. It is important that the scoring system allows satisfactory regional outcome measurements specific for the upper limb. This is particularly important in injuries and disease that involve both upper and lower limbs. The validity, reliability, responsiveness and bias are used for the assessment of various questionnaires. There are also many practical issues concerning the use of questionnaires including feasibility of use for the patient and the clinician. The Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire is a region-specific outcome measures commonly used for the upper limb, and is a patient-completed questionnaire. It is frequently used to assess self-reported patient outcome in orthopaedics, rheumatology and neurology. In this paper the DASH questionnaire is discussed along with its disadvantages that lead the authors to create the Manchester-Modified DASH.