Inter-Rater Reliability of Ergonomic Work Demands for Childcare Workers Using the Observation Instrument TRACK

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of a newly developed instrument-TRACK (observaTion woRk demAnds Childcare worK) for observations of ergonomic work demands in childcare work. Two trained raters conducted thirty hours of concurrent observation of fifteen childcare workers in three different day nurseries. Inter-rater reliability of ergonomic work demands was evaluated using Gwet’s Agreement Coefficient (AC1) and interpreted by the Landis and Koch benchmark scale. Twenty ergonomic work demand items were evaluated. Inter-rater reliability was ‘almost perfect’ for nine items (AC1 0.81–1.00), ‘substantial’ for four items (AC1 0.61–0.80), ‘moderate’ for four items (AC1 0.41–0.60), ‘fair’ for two items (AC1 0.21–0.40), and ‘slight’ (AC1 0.00–0.20) for one item. No items had ‘poor’ (AC1 < 0.00) agreement. The instrument is reliable for assessing ergonomic work demands in childcare in real-life settings.