The WHO-DAS II: Psychometric Properties in the Measurement of Functional Health Status in Adults With Acquired Hearing Loss

Abstract

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Disability Assessment Scale II (WHO-DAS II) is a generic health-status instrument firmly grounded in the WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (WHO-ICF). As such, it assesses functioning for six domains: communication, mobility, self-care, interpersonal, life activities, and participation. Domain scores aggregate to a total score. Because the WHO-DAS II contains questions relevant to hearing and communication, it has good face validity for use as an outcome measure for audiologic intervention. The purpose of the present study was to determine the psychometric properties of the WHO-DAS II on a sample of individuals with adult-onset hearing loss, including convergent validity, internal consistency, and test-retest stability. Convergent validity was established by examining correlations between the WHO-DAS II (domain and total scores) and the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and the Hearing Aid Handicap for the Elderly (HHIE), two disease-specific measures, as well as with the Short Form-36 for veterans (SF-36V), a second generic measure. Data on all four measures were collected from 380 older individuals with adult-onset hearing loss who were not hearing aid users. The results of the convergent validity analysis revealed that the WHODAS II communication domain score was moderately and significantly correlated with scores on the APHAB and the HHIE. WHO-DAS II interpersonal and participation domain scores and the total scores were also moderately and significantly correlated with HHIE scores. These findings support the validity of using the WHO-DAS II for assessing activity limitations and participation restrictions of adult-onset hearing loss. Several WHO-DAS II domain scores and the total score were also significantly and moderately-markedly correlated with scores from the SF-36V. These findings support the validity of the WHO-DAS II as a generic health-status instrument. Internal consistency reliability for all the domain scores was adequate for all but the interpersonal domain. Test-retest stability for all the domain scores was adequate. Critical difference values were calculated for use in clinical application of the WHO-DAS II. From these findings, we concluded that the WHO-DAS II communication, participation, and total scores can be used to examine the effects of adult-onset hearing loss on functional health status. Further work examining the utility of the WHO-DAS II as an outcome measure for hearing aid intervention is warranted.

Developing the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0

“…It can be used for conducting population surveys, [10][11][12][13][14][15] for registers 16 and for monitoring individual patient outcomes in clinical practice and in clinical trials of treatment effects. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Methods The WHODAS 2.0 was constructed through a process involving extensive review and field-testing, as described in the following sections.…”

Measuring disability across cultures — the psychometric properties of the WHODAS II in older people from seven low‐ and middle‐income countries. The 10/66 Dementia Research Group population‐based survey

“…The psychometric properties of the 36-item WHODAS II have been explored in a variety of clinical populations including those with stroke (Posl et al, 2007), inflammatory arthritis (Baron et al, 2008), back pain (Chwastiak and Von Korff, 2003), ankylosing spondylitis (van Tubergen et al, 2003), systemic sclerosis (Hudson et al, 2008), acquired hearing loss (Chisolm et al, 2005), psychosis (Chopra etal., 2004; McKibbin etal., 2004), depression (Chwastiak and Von Korff, 2003), and among mental health service users (Chavez et al, 2005). It performed well in all of these contexts, with high internal consistency, moderate to good test-retest reliability, and good concurrent validity against indicators of disease severity, disease specific and other generic disability assessments.…”

El WHODAS 2.0 en Puerto Rico: Psicometría y su relación con la escala de evaluación de actividad global con pacientes psiquiátricos.

“…Tomando en consideración los escritos sobre las equivalencias psicométricas entre el WHODAS 2.0 y otros instrumentos de valoración (Chisolm et al, 2005;Chopra et al, 2004;Magistrale et al, 2015;Ruocco et al, 2014), no se encontró dentro de la revisión realizada reportes que comparen directamente el WHODAS 2.0 con el GAF, y tampoco que se hayan realizado específicamente con poblaciones latinas. Además de esto, no se ha encontrado literatura que compara las características psicométricas de la versión de 12 reactivos con la versión de 36 del WHODAS 2.0, ni respecto a su comportamiento frente al GAF.…”