title: The psychosocial work environment and musculoskeletal disorders: design of a comprehensive interviewer-administered questionnaire.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychosocial working conditions are likely to contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs), but a lack of standardized measurement tools reflects both the theoretical and methodological limitations of current research.
  
  
  METHODS
  An interdisciplinary team including biomedical, behavioral, and social science researchers used an iterative process to adapt existing instruments for an interviewer-administered questionnaire assessing psychosocial workplace exposure related to musculoskeletal disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The resulting questionnaire included measures of psychosocial workplace factors based on two theoretical models (the demand-control-support and the effort-reward imbalance models), supplemented by the additional constructs of "emotional demands," and "experiences of discrimination." Other psychosocial and physical measures selected for questionnaire inclusion address physical workload, sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics, social relations and life events, health behaviors, and physical and psychological health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using an interdisciplinary approach facilitated the development of a comprehensive questionnaire inclusive of key measures of psychosocial factors that may play a role in the complex mechanisms leading to WRMSDs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, USA. rer@ami.dk
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rugulies
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Braff
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aust
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gillen
authors.forename: Irene H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhatia
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ames
authors.forename: Deborah R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Ira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Janowitz
authors.forename: Doug
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oman
authors.forename: Bradly P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blanc
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D011584:Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*