Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org0009-0003-7538-7705

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Problem/Project Report

Degree Type

OTD

College

School of Medicine

Department

Occupational Therapy

Committee Chair

SueAnn Woods

Committee Co-Chair

Brandon Seth Powers

Committee Member

Kayleigh Nolan

Committee Member

Heather Livengood

Abstract

Background: The QuickDASH is one of the most common upper extremity (UE) focused patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) utilized within current practice. Despite its high utilization rate, there are still many concerns surrounding the QuickDASH, including its applicability to certain populations, difficulty with cross-cultural adaptation, and limited psychosocial evaluation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a reformed version of the QuickDASH, the OT-DASH, that included modernized and occupation-focused language to achieve increased client applicability and yield more accurate comparisons between client perceptions of dysfunction and their true clinical presentations. Theoretical framework: The Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance model was utilized to analyze and transform the QuickDASH with the goal of developing a more holistic assessment of clients and their type of UE dysfunction. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, the efficacy and applicability of the QuickDASH were compared to the OT-DASH to determine how each assessment reveals functional performance and whether there were statistically significant differences between how patients responded to each questionnaire regarding the same injury or disability. A sample cohort of 167 patients recruited from the WVU Medicine UE orthopedic office was utilized for data collection over 8 weeks. Results: The sample population reported overall lower dysfunction scores on the OT-DASH compared to the QuickDASH. There was a statistically significant difference, and a strong, positive correlation found between the mean scores of perceived level of dysfunction (p < .001; r = .83). Between the perceived relevance, there was a strong, positive correlation but no statistically significant difference found (p < .085; r = .86). There were six primary themes derived related to applicability, compensatory methods, response difficulty, interpretation difficulty, psychosocial symptoms, and questionnaire recommendations. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the QuickDASH remains an effective measure of UE physical dysfunction. The OT-DASH also demonstrated success in achieving applicability and holisticity as an UE evaluation measure, specifically with the inclusion of evaluating psychosocial symptoms following physical dysfunction. Further research is recommended to facilitate the development of the most effective means of holistic UE evaluation into current practice.

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