The Radboud skills questionnaire: construction and reliability in patients with reflex sympathetic dystrophy of one upper extremity.

Abstract

To construct a questionnaire to measure skills in which notably both hands are active, which is suitable for patients with a disease of one or both hands and to research its response stability and possible improvements. Using the Dutch elaboration of the ICIDH and then experts in a Delphi round, the questionnaire was constructed. Thereafter, test-retest and inter-observer reliability was examined. Fifty-four patients with RSD in one upper extremity and a normal contralateral extremity participated in the study, the first twenty to evaluate the construction of the questionnaire and the others to test reliability. The constructed Radboud skills questionnaire was reliable in terms of response stability (median coefficients of variation 2.2% to 6.6%). Correlation's between categories of items were fair to good. A useful questionnaire was constructed to map alterations in the level of disability in patients with a disease of one hand or both hands.