Department of Public Health Sciences, UConn School of Medicine, 263 Farmington Ave MC6325, Farmington, CT, 06030-6325, USA.
Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, UConn School of Medicine, Farmington, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Aug 20;22(1):1586. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13963-7.
Working time characteristics have been used to link work schedule features to health impairment; however, extant working time exposure assessments are narrow in scope. Prominent working time frameworks suggest that a broad range of schedule features should be assessed to best capture non-standard schedules. The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional scale that assesses working time exposures and test its reliability and validity for full-time workers with non-standard schedules.
A cross-sectional study was conducted using full-time, blue-collar worker population samples from three industries - transportation (n = 174), corrections (n = 112), and manufacturing (n = 99). Using a multi-phased approach including the review of scientific literature and input from an advisory panel of experts, the WorkTime Scale (WTS) was created and included multiple domains to characterize working time (length, time of day, intensity, control, predictability, and free time). Self-report surveys were distributed to workers at their workplace during company time. Following a comprehensive scale development procedure (Phase 1), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (Phase 2) and, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (Phase 3; bivariate correlations were used to identify the core components of the WTS and assess the reliability and validity (Phase 4) in three samples.
Phase 1 resulted in a preliminary set of 21 items that served as the basis for the quantitative analysis of the WTS. Phase 2 used EFA to yield a 14-item WTS measure with two subscales ("Extended and Irregular Work Days (EIWD)" and "Lack of Control (LOC)"). Phase 3 used CFA to confirm the factor structure of the WTS, and its subscales demonstrated good internal consistency: alpha coefficients were 0.88 for the EIWD factor and 0.76-0.81 for the LOC factor. Phase 4 used bivariate correlations to substantiate convergent, discriminant, and criterion (predictive) validities.
The 14-item WTS with good reliability and validity is an effective tool for assessing working time exposures in a variety of full-time jobs with non-standard schedules.
工作时间特征已被用于将工作时间表特征与健康损害联系起来；然而，现有的工作时间暴露评估范围狭窄。突出的工作时间框架表明，应该评估广泛的时间表特征，以最好地捕捉非标准时间表。本研究的目的是开发一种多维量表，评估工作时间暴露情况，并测试其对非标准时间表的全职工人的可靠性和有效性。
本研究采用横断面研究，从三个行业（运输业[ n = 174]、惩教业[ n = 112]和制造业[ n = 99]）的全职蓝领工人中抽取样本。通过文献回顾和专家咨询小组的意见，创建了工作时间量表（WorkTime Scale，WTS），并包括多个领域来描述工作时间（长度、时间、强度、控制、可预测性和空闲时间）。在公司时间内，将自我报告调查问卷分发给工人。在全面的量表开发程序（第 1 阶段）之后，进行探索性因素分析（EFA）（第 2 阶段）和验证性因素分析（CFA）（第 3 阶段；使用双变量相关性确定 WTS 的核心成分，并在三个样本中评估可靠性和有效性（第 4 阶段）。
第 1 阶段产生了初步的 21 项，作为 WTS 定量分析的基础。第 2 阶段使用 EFA 得出一个由 14 个项目组成的 WTS 测量量表，有两个子量表（“延长和不规则工作日（EIWD）”和“缺乏控制（LOC）”）。第 3 阶段使用 CFA 验证了 WTS 的因子结构，其子量表表现出良好的内部一致性：EIWD 因子的 alpha 系数为 0.88，LOC 因子的 alpha 系数为 0.76-0.81。第 4 阶段使用双变量相关性证实了收敛性、区分度和预测性（标准）效度。
具有良好可靠性和有效性的 14 项 WTS 是评估各种非标准时间表全职工作中工作时间暴露的有效工具。
