Introducing the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ).

OBJECTIVE

The concept of occupational balance is frequently used in occupational therapy but the fact that it has been defined and measured differently is a limitation. This article introduces the Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ), which focuses on satisfaction with the amount and variation of occupations. It consists of 13 items measured on six-step ordinal scales. It has shown good content validity in a sample of 21 occupational therapists but other psychometric properties have not been investigated. The aim was to investigate the OBQ regarding internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and floor/ceiling effects.

METHODS

The OBQ was administered twice to a sample selected through convenience sampling. Internal consistency was investigated by Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability analysed with Spearman's Rho correlation for the total score and weighted kappa on each item. Potential floor/ceiling effects were explored by checking for the percentage of participants who scored lowest and highest.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that the OBQ has good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.936) and sufficient test-retest reliability (Spearman's Rho for the total score was 0.926) and, thus, seems stable over time. No floor or ceiling effect was detected.

CONCLUSIONS

The OBQ therefore showed promising reliability, although further instrument development studies to examine its construct validity are required.