A DBQ, or Disability Benefits Questionnaire, is a standardized VA form that captures the medical findings the rating schedule needs for a specific condition: diagnosis, symptoms, severity measurements, and functional impact, in a structure VA raters can apply directly.

DBQs exist per condition or body system, and the format is the point. Instead of a rater interpreting narrative clinic notes, the form asks the examining clinician the specific questions the rating criteria turn on: measured range of motion, frequency and duration of episodes, the functional limits observed. VA and contracted examiners complete DBQs during claim exams, and healthcare providers can complete them for conditions they evaluate.

A completed DBQ is evidence, weighed with the rest of the record rather than deciding the claim on its own. Its value is structural: it makes documented severity legible to the people applying the rating schedule.