Open AccessReproducibility and validity of workers’ self-reports of physical work demands
Author(s) -
Susan Stock,
Rita de Cássia Pereira Fernandes,
Alain Delisle,
Nicole Vézina
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of work, environment and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.621
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1795-990X
pISSN - 0355-3140
DOI - 10.5271/sjweh.947
Subject(s) - reproducibility , shoulders , workload , duration (music) , sitting , squatting position , work (physics) , applied psychology , physical therapy , computer science , psychology , medicine , engineering , statistics , mathematics , mechanical engineering , art , surgery , literature , pathology , operating system
The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the reproducibility and validity of self-report questions concerning physical work demands. After a bibliographic search of Medline and Ergonomic Abstracts for 1980-2003, 15 articles meeting the eligibility criteria were reviewed for methodological quality; 82 formulations of questions on physical work demands were evaluated for reproducibility and 83 for validity. Questions evaluated for both reproducibility and validity that performed well in both sets of studies included those on duration or presence of sitting and standing posture, the presence of walking, kneeling or squatting postures, duration or frequency of hands above shoulders, manual handling of more than or less than 10 kg, general level of physical effort, presence and duration of whole-body vibration, and duration of the use of visual display terminals. Suggestions for improving the design of reproducibility and validity studies and directions for future research in physical workload measurement are proposed.