title: Validity of the dictionary of occupational titles for assessing upper extremity work demands.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) is used in vocational rehabilitation to guide decisions about the ability of a person with activity limitations to perform activities at work. The DOT has categorized physical work demands in five categories. The validity of this categorization is unknown. Aim of this study was to investigate whether the DOT could be used validly to guide decisions for patients with injuries to the upper extremities. Four hypotheses were tested.
  
  
  METHODS
  A database including 701 healthy workers was used. All subjects filled out the Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, from which an Upper Extremity Work Demands score (UEWD) was derived. First, relation between the DOT-categories and UEWD-score was analysed using Spearman correlations. Second, variance of the UEWD-score in occupational groups was tested by visually inspecting boxplots and assessing kurtosis of the distribution. Third, it was investigated whether occupations classified in one DOT-category, could significantly differ on UEWD-scores. Fourth, it was investigated whether occupations in different DOT-categories could have similar UEWD-scores using Mann Whitney U-tests (MWU).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relation between the DOT-categories and the UEWD-score was weak (r(sp) = 0.40; p<.01). Overlap between categories was found. Kurtosis exceeded ±1.0 in 3 occupational groups, indicating large variance. UEWD-scores were significantly different within one DOT-category (MWU = 1.500; p<.001). UEWD scores between DOT-categories were not significantly different (MWU = 203.000; p = .49).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All four hypotheses could not be rejected. The DOT appears to be invalid for assessing upper extremity work demands.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Center for Rehabilitation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. l.opsteegh@cvr.umcg.nl
authors.forename: Lonneke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Opsteegh
authors.forename: Remko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soer
authors.forename: Heleen A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Reinders-Messelink
authors.forename: Michiel F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Reneman
authors.forename: Corry K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: van der Sluis
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D004651:Employment; D006230:Hand Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D009790:Occupations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation