Inter‐method agreement between O*NET and survey measures of psychosocial exposure among healthcare industry employees

Abstract

Background Imputed job characteristics had been used as proxy of exposure to working conditions. O*NET database provides job information that could be useful to evaluate psychosocial working conditions. Methods Consistency and total agreement between O*NET and self‐reported psychosocial exposure (demand/control (DC), effort/reward (ER) proxy models, and emotional labor scale) were compared between healthcare specific (12 occupations, 215 workers) and other jobs (12 occupations, 146 workers). Results For dimensions of the DC and ER models, Spearman correlation and ICC coefficients were, in general, consistently high (ICC = 0.61 for decision latitude, 0.41 for rewards, 0.53 for ER ratio, and lower for others), particularly in the healthcare specific jobs. Conclusion O*NET and questionnaire based psychosocial indicators showed a good job level agreement particularly on healthcare specific jobs. O*NET may be a useful source of job level psychosocial exposure, especially for the DC and ER models, for healthcare occupations within these types of facilities. Am. J. Ind. Med. 50:545–553, 2007.