Article

ABILHAND is, in its original version, a 46-item, 4-level questionnaire. It
measures the difficulty perceived by patients with rheumatoid arthritis as they
do various daily manual tasks. ABILHAND was originally built through Rasch
analysis. In a later study, it was simplified to a generic 23-item, three-level
questionnaire, showing both cross-cultural (Belgium vs. Italy) and
cross-impairment (rheumatoid arthritis vs. stroke) validity. Later research
returned to the development of impairment-specific versions, with modified item
sets and levels. Each version has its own Rasch-derived item difficulty
calibrations, which are required to extract the patient's measure from the
individual string of responses, through computerized algorithms. All of these
hamper the practical application of the scale in rehabilitation units, where
patients with diverse conditions may share similar impairments and treatment
approaches. In this study through Rasch analysis the 'generic' scale was applied
to 126 chronic patients with different upper limb impairments, and to 24 healthy
controls. It was supported that the generic questionnaire remains valid across a
variety of motor impairments. To further facilitate clinical application, a
normative cut-off (>79 of 100) is suggested. Rasch-based item calibrations are
provided together with a software routine designed to calculate, on individual
patients, linear 0-100 measures and error estimates from the raw scores.

Langue : ANGLAIS