Test-retest reliability of an upper-extremity discomfort questionnaire in an industrial population.
OBJECTIVE
Efforts to understand or to monitor upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders among workers have usually involved the use of questionnaires. The goal of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability of an upper-extremity discomfort questionnaire among industrial workers.


METHODS
Test-retest agreement among 148 workers was analyzed using the kappa coefficient for categorical outcomes. Values of kappa greater than 0.75 are considered excellent, values between 0.40 and 0.75 are fair to good, and values of less than 0.40 represent poor agreement beyond chance alone. Test-retest results of continuous measures (eg, visual analogue scale responses) were compared with paired t-tests.


RESULTS
The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire used to elicit demographic information, medical history, exercise participation, and information on musculoskeletal symptoms among industrial workers appears to be good to excellent in most instances.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that most results of this discomfort questionnaire are reliable and suitable for use in epidemiologic studies. For reassurance of the robustness of these findings, similar studies should be carried out in other worker populations with this, and other, questionnaire instruments.
Franzblau
A
A
Department of Environmental and Industrial Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109-2029, United States. afranz@umich.edu
Salerno
D F
DF
Armstrong
T J
TJ
Werner
R A
RA
D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires