The measurement of cold sensitivity of the hand.

There is no widely accepted method of measuring the severity of cold sensitivity of the hand. A patient-answered questionnaire was developed. This consisted of seven items divided into two subscales: the first to measure the severity of cold sensitivity, and the second to grade exposure of the hands to cold at the workplace. The test-retest reliability was 0.92 for the severity subscale and 0.94 for the work exposure scale. An initial test of validity supports the use of the scale to measure cold sensitivity of the hand.