Introduction
The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0) is a generic assessment instrument developed by WHO to provide a standardized method for measuring health and disability across cultures. It was developed from a comprehensive set of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) items that are sufficiently reliable and sensitive to measure the difference made by a given intervention. WHODAS 2.0 was found to be useful for assessing health and disability levels in the general population through surveys and for measuring the clinical effectiveness and productivity gains from interventions. There are two versions: 36-item version and 12-item version.
WHODAS 2.0 Domains of Functioning:
- Cognition – understanding & communicating
- Mobility– moving & getting around
- Self-care– hygiene, dressing, eating & staying alone
- Getting along– interacting with other people
- Life activities– domestic responsibilities, leisure, work & school
- Participation– joining in community activities
WHODAS 2.0 advantages:
- A generic assessment instrument for health and disability
- Used across all diseases, including mental, neurological and addictive disorders
- Short, simple and easy to administer (5 to 20 minutes)
- Applicable in both clinical and general population settings
- A tool to produce standardized disability levels and profiles
- Applicable across cultures, in all adult populations
- Directly linked at the level of the concepts to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).
Use the following EVALUATION FORM to evaluate your patient and PRINT THE FORM when the evaluation is completed.
Psychometric Qualities
- Test-retest studies of the 36-item scale in countries across the world found it to be highly reliable.
- All items were selected on the basis of item–response theory (i.e. the application of mathematical models to data gathered from questionnaires and tests).
- Showed a robust factor structure (see below) that remained constant across cultures and different types of patient populations.
- The validation studies also showed that it compared well with other measures of disability or health status, and with clinician and proxy ratings.
In all cultures and populations tested, factor analysis revealed a robust factor structure on 2 levels
- First level: General disability factor
- Second level: Different life domains based on ICF