1 Before you use it
What it is
Built specifically for whiplash, which is why it beats a generic neck index in that population. Thirteen items covering pain, personal care, work and household duties, social and recreational activity, emotional health, fatigue and sleep.
When to reach for it
Any whiplash-associated disorder presentation, at baseline and review.
Pair it with the ÖMPSQ-SF early. Whiplash is the classic presentation where a psychosocial screen changes the plan, and the two questionnaires take under ten minutes between them.
Patterns it serves · 1
2 Giving it
Scoring
Each item 0–10, summed to 0–130. Higher means more disability.
What it doesn’t measure
Physical impairment, range or strength. It is a disability measure, and the physical examination is a separate conversation.
Repeat it
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Interpret change against the patient's own baseline.
It covers emotional health, fatigue and sleep where the NDI doesn't — which matters, because those are exactly the domains that drive a poor whiplash trajectory.
Is the change real?
On placement
WAD II, week 6. WDQ 71 at intake, 52 today.
Read it as 19 points down, over the 15-point MDC (measured in whiplash-associated disorder). Real. The library carries no MCID. Read the emotional-health, fatigue and sleep items — the NDI doesn't cover them and they drive the trajectory.
Do if the sleep and fatigue items are still high, escalate the psychologically-informed side of the plan now, at the guideline's week-6 check, not later.
Student trap. Using the NDI for a whiplash patient because it's the one you know. There's a population-specific instrument and it covers the domains that actually predict the outcome.
Official source: tac.vic.gov.au. We don't host the form.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
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