Health Assessment Questionnaire- Disability Index

The HAQ Disability Index asks how much difficulty a person has doing ordinary things — not how much their joints hurt or how inflamed they look, but whether they can dress themselves, get out of a chair, and open a milk carton.

Twenty questions sit in eight categories: dressing and grooming, arising, eating, walking, hygiene, reach, grip, and everyday activities. Each is answered from without any difficulty (0) to unable to do (3). Two scoring rules matter. Within each category, only the hardest item counts. And if a person uses an aid, a device, or help from another person for anything in a category, that category scores at least 2. The eight category scores average to a final index from 0 to 3.

• NIEHS HAQ instructions

Licensing Notes: HAQ Disability Index is free to use without permission. Scoring guidance comes from the "HAQ PACK" from Stanford.

Learn More: The ACR recommends it for rheumatoid arthritis trials. A known floor effect limits it in long-standing RA, where permanent joint damage caps improvement regardless of inflammation control.