Open AccessReliability and Validity of the Japanese Version of the Stanford Presenteeism Scale in Female Employees at 2 Japanese Enterprises
Author(s) -
Yamashita Miku,
Arakida Mikako
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of occupational health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 1348-9585
DOI - 10.1539/joh.50.66
Subject(s) - scale (ratio) , presenteeism , psychology , library science , medical education , medicine , family medicine , geography , computer science , cartography , social psychology , absenteeism
Recent studies have suggested “presenteeism” is a situation often experienced by workers, and it is estimated to be the cause of a large amounts of economic loss for enterprises 1, . We defined presenteeism as “a self-rated measurable loss of work performance due to health problems in the workplace” in a previous investigation . This represents an important concept for health promotion activities in occupational health. Therefore, measurement tools of presenteeism are required in Japan. The 13-item Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS) was developed in the United States in 2004 4, 5) and was designed to determine presenteeism due to a specific health condition over a 4-week period. SPS comprises 4 modules: a) selection of all health conditions and a single primary health condition (PHC) of a worker from a health condition list; b) degree of presenteeism due to the PHC (Work Impairment Score [WIS]); c) effect of the PHC on work output (Work Output Score [WOS]), a single visual analog scale, global assessment that asks the respondent what percentage he/she was able to perform effectively, given their PHC; and d) hours of absenteeism due to the PHC. WIS measures decline in work performance due to the PHC—presenteeism—in a variety of situations and comprises ten questions scored with a five-point Likert scale, ranging from “always” to “never”. WIS, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects, is able to measure presenteeism among not only production-based workers but also knowledge-based workers. The raw WIS is converted to a 100-point scale, with higher scores indicating a higher level of presenteeism and a lower level of work performance. A previous study by Turpin et al. identified two underlying factors of WIS, “completing work” and “avoiding distraction”. Furthermore they found factor loading varied from knowledge-based jobs to production-based jobs. From these applicable and practical features of the SPS, it might be a useful measurement tool of presenteeism for Japanese workers. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the SPS.