Psychometric evaluation of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) with Dupuytren's contracture: validity evidence using Rasch modeling

Forget, Nancy J, Jerosch-Herold, Christina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0525-1282, Shepstone, Lee and Higgins, Johanne (2014) Psychometric evaluation of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) with Dupuytren's contracture: validity evidence using Rasch modeling. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 15. ISSN 1471-2474

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Abstract

Background Dupuytren’s contracture is a progressive, fibroproliferative disorder that causes fixed finger contractures and can lead to disability. With the advances of new therapeutic interventions, the necessity to assess the functional repercussions of this condition using valid, reliable and sensitive outcome measures is of growing interest. The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) is one frequently used patient-reported outcome measure but its reliability and validity have never been demonstrated specifically for a population affected with Dupuytren’s contracture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the DASH, with focus on validity evidence using the Rasch measurement model. Methods Secondary analysis was performed on data collected as part of a randomised clinical trial. One hundred fifty-three participants diagnosed with Dupuytren’s contracture completed the DASH at four time points (pre-op, 3, 6 and 12 months post-op). Baseline data were analysed using traditional analysis and to test whether they adhered to the expectations of the Rasch model. Post-intervention data were subsequently included and analyzed to determine the effect of the intervention on the items. Results DASH scores demonstrated large ceiling effects at all time points. Initial fit to the Rasch model revealed that the DASH did not adhere to the expectations of the Rasch partial credit model (χ2 = 119.92; p < 0.05). Multiple items displayed inadequate response categories and two items displayed differential item functioning by gender. Items were transformed and one item deleted leading to an adequate fit. Remaining items fit the Rasch model but still do not target well the population under study. Conclusions The original version of the 30-item DASH did not display adequate validity evidence for use in a population with Dupuytren’s contracture. Further development is required to improve the DASH for this population.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Forget et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023)
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Rehabilitation
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 04 Nov 2014 12:46
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2023 01:28
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/50710
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2474-15-361

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