Epidemiological field studies to study the association between workstation characteristics, work posture and musculoskeletal disorder among office workers. Findings have been inconsistent regarding the putative adverse effect of work postures
true association
underestimation of the true association might be present in studies due to misclassification of subjects to risk and no-risk categories based on questionnaires responses
objective of this study was to estimate the amount of misclassification resulting from the use of questionnaires
questionnaires collects reliable data on workstation characteristics and some individual characteristics during computer work, but does not seem to be useful to collect data on work postures during computer work in epidemiological field studies among office workers
percentage agreement ranged between 71% and 100% for the test-retest analysis, between 31% and 100% for the comparison between questionnaire and on-site observation, and between 26% and 71% for the comparison between questionnaire and manual goniometer measurements. For 9 out of 12 tested items, the percentage agreement between questionnaire and manual goniometer measurements was below 50%
test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of a newly developed questionnaire was assessed. this questionnaire collects data on workstation characteristics an on individual characteristics during computer work. picture were asses where possible to provide visual guidance. the study population consisted of 84 office workers of a research department. they filled out the questionnaire on the internet twice, with an in-between period of 2 week. for a subgroup of workers (n=38), additional on-site observations and multiple manual goniometer measurements were performed