Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the “Health and Work Questionnaire” and Association of its Subscales with Work-Related Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Office Workers

Abstract

Background: For an organization to be successful, the productivity of its employees is of vital importance.This study aimed to: 1) translate and examine the psychometric properties of the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ) among Iranian office workers, and 2) Determine the association between six subscales of the Persian version of HWQ (P-HWQ) and Work-related Musculoskeletal Symptoms (WMSs) among the subjects. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among office workers employed at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In order to standardize the questionnaire, the English version of the HWQ was translated into Persian (the Iranian official language), using the standard “forward-backward” translation, cognitive debriefing, and cultural adaptation procedure. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) was used to determine the WMSs prevalence rate among the subjects. Results: 129 office workers, including 44 (34.1%) males and 85 (65.9%) females with a mean ± SD age of 36.22±7.72 years voluntarily participated in this study. Internal consistency of the P-HWQ was acceptable for all subscales (0.65≤α). Factor analysis of the P-HWQ for each item related to the subscale was acceptable (0.4<). The highest prevalence rates of WMSs in the last week were related to lower back (51.2%), neck (43.4%), and shoulders (41.1%). The concentration/focus subscale of productivity (derived from P-HWQ) was related to WMSs in participants. Conclusion: The P-HWQ has good structural characteristics, is a valid and reliable instrument, and can be used for measuring the productivity of Iranian office workers. Improvement of working conditions is suggested to reduce the musculoskeletal problems, and enhancement of people’s concentration/focus and productivity.