The Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation: a systematic review

The Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation is a region specific, patient reported outcome measure that aims to evaluate pain and disability of the wrist and hand. This review appraised the evidence for the validity and reliability of the Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation as a measure of therapeutic outcomes in musculoskeletal conditions affecting the wrist and hand. Relevant studies were identified by a search of the literature and evaluated according to the Consensus standards for the selection of health status measurement instruments checklist. Five studies met the inclusion criteria for review. Four studies utilised Classical Test Theory and were in support of the reliability and validity of the Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation. However, all of these studies were of fair to poor methodological quality. A fifth study, which utilised Rasch analysis, was of good methodological quality and supported the validity and reliability of the Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation as a three subscale instrument. In conclusion, there is some good evidence for the validity and reliability of the Patient-Rated Wrist and Hand Evaluation. Further work needs to be done to enable clinicians to rescore the tool into three subscales and to examine its cultural validity.