Measuring levels of upper-extremity disability in employed adults using the DASH Questionnaire.

Purpose: The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) questionnaire is a standardized outcome measure that captures upper-extremity disability from the perspective of the patient and is used to study clinical outcomes in musculoskeletal disorders. To constitute a frame of reference for clinical values it is important for clinicians to be able to compare clinical DASH scores with those of nonclinical populations. We collected DASH data from a working population in Germany that was outside clinical considerations and used the data to identify disability levels among identified subgroups as a basis for future clinical comparisons.