[The assessment of reliability and validity of musculoskeletal questionnaire].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reliability and validity of musculoskeletal questionnaire.


METHODS
A self-administered modified musculoskeletal questionnaire was used to investigate 12 098 workers from eight occupations, i.e. coal mining, petroleum, metallurgical, mechanical manufacturing, chemical, garment and railroad transportation industries and education. The Cronbach's α coefficient, analysis of covariance and multiple logistic regression were used to assess the reliability and validity of musculoskeletal questionnaire.


RESULTS
The consistent test between total items of Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and each factor showed that the range of Cronbach's α was 0.52 ∼ 0.92, except from vibration factor, other Cronbach's α was more than 0.7. All 55 items of Musculoskeletal Questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis, and ten latent factors were identified, which explained 55.17% of the total variance. The potentially hazardous working conditions could be categorized into seven dimensions (force, dynamic load, static load, repetitive load, climate factors, vibration exposure and environmental ergonomic factor), which consisted with the theory model. The results of covariance analysis indicated that there were significant difference among 7 dimension indices in different jobs (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The modified Musculoskeletal Questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for measuring musculoskeletal workload.
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Wei-wei
WW
Du
Sheng
S
Wang
Jian-xin
JX
Wang
Li-hua
LH
He
Shan-shan
SS
Wu
Jing-yun
JY
Li
Lei
L
Yang
Shan-fa
SF
Yu
Zhao-lin
ZL
Xia
Ling-ping
LP
Li
An-ping
AP
Zhu
Xiao-feng
XF
Liu
Zi-hua
ZH
Zhu
D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases; D016272:Occupational Health; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires