Construction of a web-based questionnaire for longitudinal investigation of work exposure, musculoskeletal pain and performance impairments in high-performance marine craft populations

Abstract

ObjectiveHigh-performance marine craft personnel (HPMCP) are regularly exposed to vibration and repeated shock (VRS) levels exceeding maximum limitations stated by international legislation. Whereas such exposure reportedly is detrimental to health and performance, the epidemiological data necessary to link these adverse effects causally to VRS are not available in the scientific literature, and no suitable tools for acquiring such data exist. This study therefore constructed a questionnaire for longitudinal investigations in HPMCP.MethodsA consensus panel defined content domains, identified relevant items and outlined a questionnaire. The relevance and simplicity of the questionnaire’s content were then systematically assessed by expert raters in three consecutive stages, each followed by revisions. An item-level content validity index (I-CVI) was computed as the proportion of experts rating an item as relevant and simple, and a scale-level content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) as the average I-CVI across items. The thresholds for acceptable content validity were 0.78 and 0.90, respectively. Finally, a dynamic web version of the questionnaire was constructed and pilot tested over a 1-month period during a marine exercise in a study population sample of eight subjects, while accelerometers simultaneously quantified VRS exposure.ResultsContent domains were defined as work exposure, musculoskeletal pain and human performance, and items were selected to reflect these constructs. Ratings from nine experts yielded S-CVI/Ave of 0.97 and 1.00 for relevance and simplicity, respectively, and the pilot test suggested that responses were sensitive to change in acceleration and that the questionnaire, following some adjustments, was feasible for its intended purpose.ConclusionsA dynamic web-based questionnaire for longitudinal survey of key variables in HPMCP was constructed. Expert ratings supported that the questionnaire content is relevant, simple and sufficiently comprehensive, and the pilot test suggested that the questionnaire is feasible for longitudinal measurements in the study population.

Development and Validation of an Evaluation Tool to Measure the Effectiveness of a Smoking Cessation Training among Healthcare Providers in Malaysia: The Providers’ Smoking Cessation Training Evaluation (ProSCiTE)

“…The Content Validity Index (CVI) is extensively used in reporting the content validity of newly developed instruments [58,66,67,68,69,70,71,72]. In this study, the content validity of the developed instrument was statistically analyzed by an Item-Content Validity Index (I-CVI), a Scale-Content Validity Index (S-CVI), and kappa ( k ).…”

Exposure aboard high-performance marine craft increases musculoskeletal pain and lowers contemporary work capacity of the occupants

“…[40][41][42] Though the studies are not fully comparable, it can be seen that the prevalence of any MSP as well as lower back and neck pain among the Swedish coast guards are significantly high when comparing with many other studies. 1,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] As examples, prevalence of any MSP considering the past 12 months in the Royal Norwegian Navy 45 has been reported as 32.0% and the U. S. Navy 49 57.5%, whereas in the Swedish general population 43 66.0%. It has been reported in Ensign et al, 1 that the prevalence of lower back pain among military small high-speed craft occupants, that is, planing craft occupants, was 33.6% and the Royal Norwegian Navy 45 15.0%.…”

Effect of occupational exposure to shock and vibration on health in high-performance marine craft occupants

“…Self-reported data is collected by two sets of web-based questionnaires, 24,25 hereinafter referred to as Q1 and Q2 respectively.…”

“…Q1 24 is a comprehensive questionnaire that measures demography, life-style, work-exposure, health and performance data on seaborne personnel allowing quantification of the prevalence of adverse health and performance effects and their association with work exposure. Q2 25 is a complementary, more succinct, questionnaire tool with higher resolution in order to isolate the causal effects of work-exposure on health and performance in HPMC occupants.…”