Reliability and Validity of a Newly Developed Ergonomic Assessment Tool for Unstructured and Unregulated Work

Abstract

Existing ergonomic assessment tools have been designed for routine and structured work making their use in informal work setting challenging due to the high variability in tasks performed by informal workers. The Ergonomic Assessment tool for Unstructured Work (EAUW) was developed by Acquah and colleagues to address this challenge. The tool is efficient and has good inter-observer reliability, but little information is known about its other psychometric properties. This paper assesses the reliability and validity of EAUW. Criterion validity was determined by comparing the EAUW with existing tools for a selected number of e-waste recycling tasks. Intra-observer reliability was determined by comparing observations from the same assessor 5 days apart. Results indicated a high intra-observer agreement for all exposure variables. Compared to existing tools which provide a snapshot of ergonomic exposures, the EAUW provides a more detailed estimate of work exposures between- and within-workers across time.