Concurrent validity of the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index in Scleroderma.
OBJECTIVE
To establish the concurrent validity of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) Disability Index in systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma).


METHODS
Eighty subjects with SSc completed the HAQ Disability Index questionnaire. An occupational therapist, who was blind to the subjects' responses, observed each subject's performance on 10 of the items.


RESULTS
Paired t-tests showed significant differences between the observer and subjects' responses for tying shoes, buttoning, gripping, and walking. Intra-class correlations between observer and subjects ranged from 0.38 to 0.76.


CONCLUSIONS
The results support the validity of the HAQ Disability Index in patients with systemic sclerosis.
Poole
J L
JL
Williams
C A
CA
Bloch
D A
DA
Hollak
B
B
Spitz
P
P
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires