Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Work related activities that may contribute to job-related pain and/or injury to Brazilian-Portuguese language

Author(s)

Marina Zambon Orpinelli Coluci

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
• Defense date: 2008-07-31

Examining board members

Neusa Maria Costa Alexandre; Maria Silvia Monteiro; Edinêis de Brito Guirardello

• Advisor: Neusa Maria Costa Alexandre

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders are the most important causes of work disability and absenteeism in many occupational groups and can be caused by work- related ergonomic factors. Questionnaires and scales have been considered as important strategies to identify these factors, allowing the evaluation of the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions and the prevention of musculoskeletal symptoms. However, these instruments should be adapted to meet the Brazilian population needs. The objective of the present research was to produce a translated and adapted version of the questionnaire "Work-related activities that may contribute to job-related pain and/or injury", to evaluate their psychometric properties and to verify its practicability. The cross-cultural adaptation was performed according to the internationally recommended methodology, using the following guidelines: translation, synthesis, back-translation, revision by an expert committee, and pretest. The questionnaire was independently translated by two bilingual translators, who had Portuguese as their mother tongue. Then, two other translators whose native language was English did the back-translation. A multidisciplinary committee composed of six experts revised and compared the translations, developing the final version for pretest application. The pretest was carried out with 40 workers. The psychometric properties were evaluated by administering the questionnaire to 148 employees of metallurgical industries. Reliability was found by assessing the test-retest stability. The construct validity was tested using the known-groups technique, administering the questionnaire to workers of the production and administrative areas. The validity was also established by comparing the workers' responses with findings from the Nordic Questionnaire scores. The instrument usability was verified considering the time and the easiness in answering through a five-point Likert scale. Reliability was assessed by a test-retest procedure at 7-day intervals, using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) in 142 workers. The ICC values were calculated for each one of the 15 questions of the questionnaire. The ICC values demonstrated a good agreement for 11 items of the instrument, with the ICC values ranging from 0.61 to 0.73. Only four items presented an ICC lower than 0.60 (0.54 - 0.58), indicating a moderate agreement. The greatest values found were related to static work (0.73), awkward positions (0.71), carrying heavy materials and equipments (0.71), using small objects (0.69), repetitiveness (0.63), and work presenting any kind of symptom (0.63). Concerning the construct validity, there was a significant difference (p < 0.02) between the answers of the two groups of employees in 10 questions of the questionnaire. The validity test showed a significant difference (p < 0.01) on the scores of each item of the employees' perceptions, when evaluating the 15 different job factors and their potential contribution to musculoskeletal disorders, between subjects who indicated the presence of symptoms and those who revealed absence of them, according to the Nordic Questionnaire. The instrument showed easy and fast applicability. The data showed that the cross-cultural adaptation process was successful, and the adapted version of the questionnaire demonstrated to have adequate psychometric properties, making it reliable to be applied to Brazilian culture. (AU)