The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire in Germany: From the validation of the instrument to the formation of a job-specific database of psychosocial factors at work

Abstract

The German version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) was established and tested in a sample of 2561 employees in order to: (a) assess the questionnaires’ psychometric properties; and (b) develop an appropriate instrument to use in the assessment of psychosocial risk factors. A shortened version of the instrument was developed, reducing the number of items from 141 to 87. With this, a database has been established since 2005. In a cooperation model between science (Freiburg Research Centre of Occupational and Social Medicine) and companies or organizations, new COPSOQ data are added to the dynamically growing database with profession-specific profiles of psychosocial factors at work. In return, companies can compare their results with job-related data in the database, facilitating the interpretation of their results and the implementation of improvement measures. The COPSOQ database has reached >25,000 respondents. Ongoing projects will expand the German COPSOQ database and include representative samples. Furthermore, a job exposure matrix for psychosocial factors at work will be constructed in 2009. Finally, in several projects, a first assessment has been followed by efforts to improve the problematic areas of psychosocial working conditions.