Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Korean version of the Michigan hand questionnaire.

PURPOSE: The Michigan hand questionnaire (MHQ) is increasingly being used and has been adapted cross-culturally in some Western and Asian countries, but the validation process for an Asian translation of MHQ has not been well described. In this study, we translated and adapted the original MHQ cross-culturally to produce a Korean version, and then assessed the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the MHQ.

METHODS: A total of 176 patients with common hand disorders completed the Korean version of the MHQ and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire. We included the pain score assessed by a visual analog scale during activity, range of motion, measurement of grip strength, and subjective assessment of the functional state by use of Cooney's scale in the validation process.

RESULTS: There were no major linguistic or cultural problems during forward and backward translations of the MHQ, except for a minor change owing to cultural discrepancies in eating, such as the dominant hand using a spoon and chopsticks instead of both hands using a knife and fork. All subscales of the MHQ showed satisfactory internal consistency. The reproducibility test showed no significant difference. The construct validity revealed a moderate to strong correlation between every subscale of the Korean MHQ against DASH disabilities and symptoms. The aesthetic and satisfaction domains, unique domains of the MHQ, had little correlation with the objective measure of the pain visual analog scale, grip strength, motion and subjective functional state.

CONCLUSIONS: The Korean version of MHQ showed satisfactory internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity and demonstrated a significant correlation with the patient-based upper extremity questionnaire and clinical assessment. We found the application and evaluation of the instrument to be feasible and understandable among patients in Korea.