Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Italian version of the patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation questionnaire.

An Italian version of the patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation (PRWHE) questionnaire was obtained through the standardized process of cross-cultural adaptation. The PRWHE-Italian (IT) was tested on 63 patients in order to evaluate comprehension, reliability and validity as correlated to the validated version of the disabilities of the arm shoulder and hand (DASH)-IT and SF-36. No patients had difficulty completing the PRWHE-IT questionnaire. Psychometric testing demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.9607) and internal and external validity (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.927 with PRWHE, r < 0.810 with DASH and r < -0.476 with SF-36). The Italian version of the PRWHE has equivalent evaluation capacities to the original English version and is a reliable functional outcome measurement instrument for wrist and hand disorders.