Validity test of the IPD-Work consortium approach for creating comparable job strain groups between Job Content Questionnaire and Demand-Control Questionnaire.

Publisher: Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine Country of Publication: Poland NLM ID: 9437093 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1896-494X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 12321087 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Occup Med Environ Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2015- : Lodz : Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine
Original Publication: Lodz : Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine ; Polish Association of Occupational Medicine, [1994-

Internal-External Control* ; Surveys and Questionnaires* ; Workload*; Occupational Diseases/*epidemiology ; Stress, Psychological/*epidemiology; Epidemiologic Methods ; False Negative Reactions ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meta-Analysis as Topic ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Diseases/diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stress, Psychological/diagnosis ; Sweden/epidemiology

Objectives: This study aims to test the validity of the IPD-Work Consortium approach for creating comparable job strain groups between the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Demand-Control Questionnaire (DCQ).
Material and Methods: A random population sample (N = 682) of all middle-aged Malmö males and females was given a questionnaire with the 14-item JCQ and 11-item DCQ for the job control and job demands. The JCQ job control and job demands scores were calculated in 3 different ways: using the 14-item JCQ standard scale formulas (method 1); dropping 3 job control items and using the 11-item JCQ standard scale formulas with additional scale weights (method 2); and the approach of the IPD Group (method 3), dropping 3 job control items, but using the simple 11-item summation-based scale formulas. The high job strain was defined as a combination of high demands and low control.
Results: Between the 2 questionnaires, false negatives for the high job strain were much greater than false positives (37-49% vs. 7-13%). When the method 3 was applied, the sensitivity of the JCQ for the high job strain against the DCQ was lowest (0.51 vs. 0.60-0.63 when the methods 1 and 2 were applied), although the specificity was highest (0.93 vs. 0.87-0.89 when the methods 1 and 2 were applied). The prevalence of the high job strain with the JCQ (the method 3 was applied) was considerably lower (4-7%) than with the JCQ (the methods 1 and 2 were applied) and the DCQ. The number of congruent cases for the high job strain between the 2 questionnaires was smallest when the method 3 was applied.
Conclusions: The IPD-Work Consortium approach showed 2 major weaknesses to be used for epidemiological studies on the high job strain and health outcomes as compared to the standard JCQ methods: the greater misclassification of the high job strain and lower prevalence of the high job strain.
(This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.)

Keywords: Malmö; epidemiological studies; misclassification; scoring methods; sensitivity; specificity

Date Created: 20150718 Date Completed: 20161213 Latest Revision: 20191210

20221213

10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00355

26182927