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. 2025 May;20(3):487-491.
doi: 10.1177/15589447231211603. Epub 2023 Nov 14.

PROMIS Global Physical Health Subscale Strongly Correlates and Performs Similarly to the QuickDASH in Hand and Upper Extremity Patients

David N Bernstein  1 , Chinmay V Bakshi  2 , Jonathan Lans  1 , Rohit Garg  1 , Abhiram R Bhashyam  1 , Daniel G Tobert  1
Affiliations

PROMIS Global Physical Health Subscale Strongly Correlates and Performs Similarly to the QuickDASH in Hand and Upper Extremity Patients

David N Bernstein et al. Hand (N Y). 2025 May.

Abstract

Background: The Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (QuickDASH) is a validated, static hand and upper extremity patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) commonly used. However, with the growth of PROM implementation across orthopedic and plastic surgery clinics, it is beneficial to determine whether a more general PROM can be used to capture the same insights. This would ease implementation broadly. There is a paucity of literature assessing whether the QuickDASH and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global-10 are correlated and perform similarly.

Methods: Between June 2016 and December 2020, hand and upper extremity patients seeking care at clinics associated with a single quaternary academic medical center were identified. Those who completed the PROMIS Global-10 and QuickDASH as part of routine care were identified. The PROMIS Global-10 is divided into the PROMIS Global Physical Health and PROMIS Global Mental Health subscores. Spearman rho (ρ) correlations were calculated across PROMs, and ceiling and floor effects were determined.

Results: Across the 18 744 included patients, there was a strong correlation and strong-moderate correlation found between the QuickDASH and PROMIS Global Physical Health (ρ = 0.70, P < .001) and PROMIS Global Mental Health (ρ = 0.69, P < .001), respectively. Although small, QuickDASH demonstrates the worst floor effect (2.6%, [n = 478]), whereas PROMIS Global Mental Health demonstrated a much more notable ceiling effect (11%, [n = 2034]).

Conclusions: The PROMIS Global-10 can be used to assess the functional status of patients presenting for hand and upper extremity concerns, while also capturing aspects of mental health. The PROMIS Global-10 may ease PROM implementation broadly.

Keywords: PROMIS; PROMs; QuickDASH; health outcomes; outcomes; patient-reported outcome measures; value-based health care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: D.N.B. received research grant funding from the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society, American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand (unrelated to this study), and Cervical Spine Research Society and personal fees from the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, COSF/Boston Children’s Hospital, Mass General Brigham, CAPADEV, The Heritage Foundation, National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and Spine (Social Media Editor), outside of the submitted work. Each of the other coauthors (C.V.B., J.L., R.G., A.R.B., and D.G.T.) certify that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

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