Patient-reported outcome measure

QuickDASH

Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand

The QuickDASH is an 11-item shortened form of the DASH that measures physical function and symptoms across the whole upper limb on a single 0 to 100 scale, where a higher score means greater disability.

Licensed instrument11 items~5 min0–100, lower is better

This instrument is not reproduced here

The Institute for Work & Health licenses the DASH and QuickDASH commercially under three categories. Category B, covering commercial software and web-based software for repeated use, is charged at CAD $1,250. No licence is required and no fee is charged for non-profit use. The Institute states explicitly that a licensee may not use the instruments in their project before the commercial licence has been issued — which is why the items are not reproduced here.

Obtain a licence from the rights holder

What the QuickDASH score means

QuickDASH scores run from 0 to 100, where a lower score is better. The bands below are conventional reporting categories, not diagnostic cut-offs.

Minimal disability0–20
Mild disability21–40
Moderate disability41–60
Severe disability61–80
Very severe disability81–100

Clinically important thresholds

A change in score only matters if it exceeds the smallest difference patients actually notice. Every threshold below is reported with the population it was derived in — a threshold quoted without its population is not usable.

Type	Value	Subscale	Population	Follow-up	Source
MCID	8 points	—	Upper limb musculoskeletal disorders	—	Beaton DE 2005
MDC	11.2 points	—	Upper limb musculoskeletal disorders	—	Mintken PE 2009
MCID	15.91 points	—	Shoulder pain, physiotherapy	3–4 weeks	Mintken PE 2009
MCID	~14 points	—	Rotator cuff repair	6–12 months	Kim JK 2014

MCID is the smallest change a patient perceives as meaningful. PASS is the score above which patients consider their state acceptable. SCB is a substantial rather than minimal benefit. MDC is the smallest change exceeding measurement error.

How the score is calculated

Stated in full so the calculation can be independently checked, and reproduced by hand if needed.

Each of the 11 items is scored from 1 to 5, where a higher response indicates greater difficulty or more severe symptoms. The QuickDASH score is calculated as ((sum of the completed responses ÷ number of completed responses) − 1) × 25, giving a score from 0 to 100. A higher score means greater disability, which is the opposite direction to most function scales. The optional work module and sports/performing arts module each contain 4 items and are scored the same way, but separately — they are never added into the main score.

Missing data

A QuickDASH score cannot be calculated if more than one of the 11 items is missing. Because the denominator is the number of completed responses, a single missing item is handled automatically by the formula. The optional modules require all 4 of their items.

Instrument profile

Developer: Institute for Work & Health, with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Institution: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Canada
First published: 2005
Custodian: Institute for Work & Health
Items: 11
Response format: 5-point Likert, scored 1–5, with optional 4-item work and sports/performing arts modules
Score range: 0 to 100
Direction: Lower score = better
Recall period: The last week
Completion time: About 5 minutes
Age range: Adults
Regions: Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist & Hand
Conditions: Rotator cuff disease, Shoulder instability, Lateral epicondylitis, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Distal radius fracture, Upper limb musculoskeletal disorder
Procedures: Rotator cuff repair, Carpal tunnel release, Distal radius fixation, Shoulder arthroplasty
Languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, 40+ validated translations
Test–retest (ICC): 0.90–0.94
Internal consistency: Cronbach's alpha 0.92–0.95
Validity: Correlates very strongly with the full 30-item DASH (r ≈ 0.95), and with region-specific shoulder and hand measures.
Responsiveness: Slightly less precise than the full DASH at the individual patient level, which is the trade-off for the shorter form. For group-level research the difference is negligible; for tracking one patient over time the full DASH discriminates a little better.
Ceiling effect: Floor effect — that is, scores clustering near 0 — in patients with mild or resolved upper limb problems, since 0 represents no disability.

Normative values

Reference values from published cohorts, for comparison against the score you calculated.

Population	Age	Mean	SD
General population without upper limb complaint	—	10.1	14.7
Patients presenting with upper limb disorders	—	35–45	—

When to use the QuickDASH

Well suited to

Any upper limb disorder where a single region-free measure is wanted, so that shoulder, elbow and hand patients can be compared on the same scale.
Serial follow-up where completion burden matters and the full 30-item DASH is too long.
Research and registries, where it is one of the most widely reported upper limb outcome measures and therefore highly comparable.

Limitations and poor fits

Without a licence, if the use is commercial or web-based — the rights holder requires the licence to be in place first.
When maximum precision for an individual patient is needed, where the full DASH performs slightly better.
When a condition-specific instrument would discriminate better, such as the WOSI in shoulder instability.

QuickDASH compared with other instruments

Instruments measuring a related construct, with the practical difference between them.

Instrument	Items	Range	What it adds
SPADI	13	0–100	The SPADI is a 13-item patient-reported questionnaire that measures shoulder pain and disability over the past week on two subscales — 5 pain items and 8 disability items — each rated 0–10 and transformed to a 0–100% score in which a higher score means more pain and greater disability.
Constant Score	10	0–100	The Constant-Murley score is a 100-point clinician-administered shoulder assessment combining 35 subjective points for pain and daily activities with 65 objective points for measured range of motion and abduction strength, where 100 represents a normal, pain-free shoulder.
SST	12	0–12	The Simple Shoulder Test asks twelve yes-or-no questions about everyday shoulder functions and scores the number answered yes, giving a total from 0 to 12 where 12 means all twelve functions are retained.
ASES Score	11	0–100	The ASES score is a patient-reported shoulder index running from 0 to 100 in which a single 0–10 pain rating supplies 50 points and ten activities of daily living rated 0–3 supply the other 50, so that 100 represents a pain-free shoulder with no functional difficulty.

Copyright and permitted use

Published openly because it is the question every clinician and researcher asks before using an instrument, and almost nobody answers it.

Licensed instrumentRights holder: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto

Rights holder’s own page

References

Beaton DE, Wright JG, Katz JN, Upper Extremity Collaborative Group. Development of the QuickDASH: comparison of three item-reduction approaches. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2005.PMID 15866967
Hudak PL, Amadio PC, Bombardier C. Development of an upper extremity outcome measure: the DASH (disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand). American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 1996.PMID 8773720
Hunsaker FG, Cioffi DA, Amadio PC, Wright JG, Caughlin B. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons outcomes instruments: normative values from the general population. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2002.PMID 11996896
Mintken PE, Glynn P, Cleland JA. Psychometric properties of the shortened disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand Questionnaire (QuickDASH) and Numeric Pain Rating Scale in patients with shoulder pain. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. 2009.PMID 19559630
Kim JK, Park MG, Shin SJ. What is the minimum clinically important difference in grip strength?. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. 2014.PMID 24418728

Editorial status

Not yet reviewedQueued for clinical review by Sam Tuffun, PT, DPT. Sign-off has not taken place — this is a placeholder assignment, not a completed review.