DASH education

Alle deler > BILL > Studier > Hånd abs

Finsen V.

THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION AND INCOME ON RESPONSES TO THE QUICK-DASH QUESTIONNAIRE

J Hand Surg (Eur) 2015; 40E: 401-405: DOI: 10.1177/1753193414538874

It is common knowledge that low socioeconomic status is associated with poor health. We studied the influence of income and length of education on the QuickDASH scores that had been collected in a random sample of 1376 residents of Norway. The level of income was divided into four bands and length of education into five bands. The mean QuickDASH score for both men and women fell with every increase in education and income level. For women the mean score was 23 for those with the shortest education and 8 for those with the longest (p<0.001). The corresponding figures for men were 20 and 5 (p<0.01). The women with the lowest level of income had a mean score of 30, compared to 9 for women with the highest income level (p<0.001). For men the corresponding mean scores were 18 and 7 (p<0.001). Linear multivariate regression analysis revealed that the level of education among women accounted for 13% of the variability of their scores and the level of income for 6%. There was very considerable interdependence between these two factors. For men the importance of income and education, while statistically highly significant, was lower. It is hard to see how these findings can be taken into account in clinical studies.