TY - JOUR
T1 - Reliability and validity of expert assessments of hand-wrist physical exposures
AU - Mikkelsen, Sigurd
AU - Petersen, Rolf
AU - Lund, Christina Bach
AU - Petersen, Jonathan Aavang
AU - Thomsen, Jane Frølund
N1 - © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - BACKGROUND: General population job-exposure matrices (JEMs) based on expert assessments of physical exposures may be valuable tools for studying occupation-related musculoskeletal disorders. Wrist-hand JEMs are few and the reliability and validity of expert assessments of wrist-hand exposures is uncertain.METHODS: We examined intra- and inter-rater reliability of ratings of five experts of hand-wrist repetition, deviation, force, vibration, and computer work in 33 jobs selected to represent a large exposure variation. The validity of ratings of hand-wrist repetition was examined by comparison with electro-goniometer measurements of wrist angular velocity and mean power frequency (MPF), and the validity of hand-wrist deviation by comparison with goniometer measurements of range of motion (ROM).RESULTS: Intra-rater test-retest and inter-rater Spearman correlation coefficients controlling for rater effects, varied between 0.70 and 0.87. Corresponding kappa statistics of overall agreement showed similar high values, except for wrist deviation (kappa = 0.50). Regression analyses showed strong positive associations between expert assessments of repetition and goniometer measurements of wrist angular velocity (R2 = 0.56, p < 0.0001) and MPF (R2 = 0.37, p < 0.0003), while expert ratings of wrist deviation showed a weak statistically nonsignificant association with goniometer measurements of ROM (R2 = 0.032, p = 0.34).CONCLUSION: The reliability of expert assessments of wrist-hand physical exposures was high. Compared to goniometer measurements, the validity of assessments of wrist-hand repetition was also high, but it was low for assessments of wrist-hand deviation. The results are encouraging for establishing a hand-wrist JEM, but the results for wrist deviation emphasize that expert assessments should be validated against objective measurements.
AB - BACKGROUND: General population job-exposure matrices (JEMs) based on expert assessments of physical exposures may be valuable tools for studying occupation-related musculoskeletal disorders. Wrist-hand JEMs are few and the reliability and validity of expert assessments of wrist-hand exposures is uncertain.METHODS: We examined intra- and inter-rater reliability of ratings of five experts of hand-wrist repetition, deviation, force, vibration, and computer work in 33 jobs selected to represent a large exposure variation. The validity of ratings of hand-wrist repetition was examined by comparison with electro-goniometer measurements of wrist angular velocity and mean power frequency (MPF), and the validity of hand-wrist deviation by comparison with goniometer measurements of range of motion (ROM).RESULTS: Intra-rater test-retest and inter-rater Spearman correlation coefficients controlling for rater effects, varied between 0.70 and 0.87. Corresponding kappa statistics of overall agreement showed similar high values, except for wrist deviation (kappa = 0.50). Regression analyses showed strong positive associations between expert assessments of repetition and goniometer measurements of wrist angular velocity (R2 = 0.56, p < 0.0001) and MPF (R2 = 0.37, p < 0.0003), while expert ratings of wrist deviation showed a weak statistically nonsignificant association with goniometer measurements of ROM (R2 = 0.032, p = 0.34).CONCLUSION: The reliability of expert assessments of wrist-hand physical exposures was high. Compared to goniometer measurements, the validity of assessments of wrist-hand repetition was also high, but it was low for assessments of wrist-hand deviation. The results are encouraging for establishing a hand-wrist JEM, but the results for wrist deviation emphasize that expert assessments should be validated against objective measurements.
KW - electro-goniometer measurements
KW - expert ratings
KW - job exposure matrix
KW - reliability
KW - validity
KW - wrist-hand physical exposures
U2 - 10.1002/ajim.23318
DO - 10.1002/ajim.23318
M3 - Article
C2 - 34865239
SN - 0271-3586
VL - 65
SP - 132
EP - 142
JO - American Journal of Industrial Medicine
JF - American Journal of Industrial Medicine
IS - 2
ER -