Reliability, validity and responsiveness of the French version of the questionnaire Quick Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand in shoulder disorders

We assessed the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the French short version of the scale Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand-Disability/Symptom (F-QuickDASH-D/S) in patients with shoulder disorders. We extracted QuickDASH item responses from the responses to the full-length DASH questionnaire completed by 153 patients. In addition to collecting demographic and clinical data, subjective assessment of activities of daily living (ADL), active range of motion (ROM), and measurement of abduction strength (strength) were recorded by use of the Constant scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.94, which suggested excellent test-retest reliability. Correlation of the F-QuickDASH-D/S score with scores for F-DASH-D/S (r=0.96), handicap (r=0.79), ADL (r=-0.73), pain during activities (r=0.63), strength (r=-0.58), pain at rest (r=0.57) and ROM (r=-0.51) indicated good construct validity. Factor analysis identified 2 factors accounting for 59.1% of the variance. The responsiveness of F-QuickDASH-D/S was excellent, with standardized response mean and effect size values of 1.09 and 1.23, respectively. The F-QuickDASH-D/S has good reliability, construct validity and responsiveness. The strong correlation of its score with the full-length DASH-D/S scale score suggests that the QuickDASH-D/S could be the preferred scale because it is easier to use.