Validity of health status measures in patients with ulnar wrist disorders.

PURPOSE: To assess measurement properties and construct validity of health status measures.

METHOD: Forty-three patients with surgically managed ulnocarpal impingement completed a self-report mail survey, including regional (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand [DASH] questionnaire), disease-specific (Brigham Functional Scale), and generic (Short Form 36 [SF-36] Acute Health Survey) health status measures and questions on condition severity and work status.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Scores were transformed and frequency distributions constructed to compare the distribution of responses to the measures. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance were applied to assess construct validity.

RESULTS

The DASH and Brigham questionnaires had similar distributions of scores, with a slightly greater spread of responses and no ceiling effect on the DASH. Patients appeared slightly less healthy on the basis of the SF-36 scores, which reflected in part the effect of comorbidities. Both the DASH and the Brigham discriminated across levels of severity and work status; the DASH also discriminated on the basis of type of surgery. The SF-36 was able to discriminate some constructs but not as well as the regional and disease-specific measures.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidence of construct validity for the DASH and Brigham questionnaires in patients with ulnar wrist problems in the late post-operative period.