title: Assessment of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) questionnaire for use in patients after neck dissection for head and neck cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In this cross-sectional study, the sensibility, test-retest reliability, and validity of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) questionnaire were assessed in patients who underwent neck dissection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sensibility was assessed with a questionnaire. Test-retest reliability was performed with completion of the DASH questionnaire 2 weeks after initial completion; validity, by evaluating differences in scores between patients undergoing different types of neck dissections and correlating DASH scores with Neck Dissection Impairment Index (NDII) scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The DASH questionnaire met sensibility criteria. For test-retest reliability analysis, the intraclass coefficient was 0.91. The DASH questionnaire showed differences between patients who underwent accessory nerve-sacrifice and nerve-sparing neck dissection. DASH questionnaire scores strongly correlated with NDII scores (r = -0.86).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although this study provides preliminary data on some psychometric properties of the DASH questionnaire in patients who have undergone a neck dissection, further assessment of responsiveness and other properties are required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University Health Network, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Jolie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ringash
authors.forename: Jonathan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Irish
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gullane
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Del Bel
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chepeha
authors.forename: Aileen M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000055:Accessory Nerve / Q000601:surgery; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D037981:Neck Dissection / Q000379:methods; D059351:Organ Sparing Treatments; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Disabilities of the Arm; Neck Dissection Impairment Index (NDII); Shoulder; Shoulder Pain and Disability Index; and Hand (DASH) questionnaire; shoulder disability; shoulder impairments; shoulder scales