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Beyond Return to Work: Testing a Measure of At-Work Disability in Workers with Musculoskeletal Pain



Details

  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    There are a limited number of validated measures of a patient's perception of the level of difficulty that they are having at their job. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 16-item Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ-16). A sample of 42 workers reporting to a workplace occupational health unit with upper limb or low back pain were enrolled in an observational study. Participants were assessed at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks post reporting. Psychometric testing (distributions, Cronbach's alpha, construct validity and responsiveness to change in problem and pain) was done using the baseline and 12-week data. The WLQ-16 had evidence of internal consistency, construct validity and responsiveness. Some ceiling effect was found in the domains of mental-interpersonal and output demands. Physical demands suffered from missing values in 18/42 due to not-applicable content. Construct validity revealed that there was less discrimination at the higher (less limited) end of the scale. Responsiveness was present, though less than found with other measures of function and pain. The WLQ-16 shows promise as a measure of at-work disability. Further testing to evaluate the ceiling effect and responsiveness to constructs of change more closely related to work disability is recommended. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    0962-9343
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Grant
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Volume:
    14
  • Issue:
    8
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20028706
  • Citation:
    Qual Life Res 2005 Oct; 14(8):1869-1879
  • Email:
    beatond@smh.toronto.on.ca
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2006
  • Performing Organization:
    The Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Peer Reviewed:
    True
  • Start Date:
    19990930
  • Source Full Name:
    Quality of Life Research
  • End Date:
    20030929
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:ec10e609f1e2bc2d51b2dde9ef8e3f843c375ffdfb43c460f9a9079d087a4ee3fce8f37aeecaa1e4d0e64d01e5ba6f397866f0228127a1e3d0b1a22de141d632
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 198.17 KB ]
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