title: Validating abbreviated measures of effort-reward imbalance at work in European cohort studies: the IPD-Work consortium.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is an established conceptualisation of work stress. Although a validated effort-reward questionnaire is available for public use, many epidemiological studies adopt shortened scales and proxy measures. To examine the agreement between different abbreviated measures and the original instrument, we compared different versions of the effort-reward scales available in 15 European cohort studies participating in the IPD-Work (Individual-participant-data meta-analysis in working populations) consortium.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five of the 15 studies provide information on the original ('complete') scales measuring 'effort' and 'reward', whereas the 10 remaining studies used 'partial' scales. To compare different versions of the ERI scales, we analyse individual-level data from 31,790 participants from the five studies with complete scales.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pearson's correlation between partial and complete scales was very high in case of 'effort' (where 2 out of 3 items were used) and very high or high in case of 'reward', if at least 4 items (out of 7) were included. Reward scales composed of 3 items revealed good to satisfactory agreement, and in one case, a reward scale consisting of 2 items only demonstrated a modest, but still acceptable degree of agreement. Sensitivity and specificity of a composite measure, the ratio of effort and reward, comparing partial versus complete scales ranged between 59-93 and 85-99 %, respectively. Complete and partial scales were strongly associated with poor self-rated health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support the notion that short proxy measures or partial versions of the original scales can be used to assess effort-reward imbalance.
authors: Department of Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors: Johannes
authors: J
authors: Siegrist
authors: Nico
authors: N
authors: Dragano
authors: Solja T
authors: ST
authors: Nyberg
authors: Thorsten
authors: T
authors: Lunau
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Alfredsson
authors: Raimund
authors: R
authors: Erbel
authors: Göran
authors: G
authors: Fahlén
authors: Marcel
authors: M
authors: Goldberg
authors: Karl-Heinz
authors: KH
authors: Jöckel
authors: Anders
authors: A
authors: Knutsson
authors: Constanze
authors: C
authors: Leineweber
authors: Linda L
authors: LL
authors: Magnusson Hanson
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Nordin
authors: Reiner
authors: R
authors: Rugulies
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Schupp
authors: Archana
authors: A
authors: Singh-Manoux
authors: Töres
authors: T
authors: Theorell
authors: Gert G
authors: GG
authors: Wagner
authors: Hugo
authors: H
authors: Westerlund
authors: Marie
authors: M
authors: Zins
authors: Katriina
authors: K
authors: Heikkilä
authors: Eleonor I
authors: EI
authors: Fransson
authors: Mika
authors: M
authors: Kivimäki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D012201:Reward; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*