TY - JOUR

T1 - Measuring work ability beyond health

T2 - The Gerontological Society of America's Annual Scientific Meeting - GSA 2014

AU - Voltmer, Jan-Bennet

AU - Deller, Jürgen

N1 - Conference code: 67

PY - 2014/11/1

Y1 - 2014/11/1

N2 - The development of the German version of the Work Ability Survey revised (WAS-R) is presented. The WAS-R is improving psychometric problems of the Work Ability Index (WAI), i.e. a ceiling effect. Addi-tionally, it is integrating factors of work place and social environment into the measurement of work ability. Few studies have been using the WAS-R, and no validation study has been published, yet. We trans-lated the 54-item version of the WAS-R in a translation-backtranslation process. A sample of 1,052 senior managers of the German chemical industry was used for construct validation. Participants completed an online-survey of the WAS-R, the WAI, measures of job attitude and questions concerning retirement age. Factorial structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of the subscales of the WAS-R ranged from .58 to .94. The WAS-R total score was correlated significantly with the WAI (r = .56, p < .001), job satisfaction (r = .73, p < .001), desired retirement age (r = .16, p = <.001), and willingness to return to one’s organization, if asked (r =.32, p < .001). Lower skew and kurtosis indicated a better distribution of the WAS-R than of the WAI. We compared results from our sample with a subsample of the Australian WAS-R study. The German version of the WAS-R extends our understanding of work ability by integrating characteristics of work place and social environment. Its psychometric properties allow para-metric statistical analysis. Interventions aiming at the improvement of work ability can be derived from its detailed subscales.

AB - The development of the German version of the Work Ability Survey revised (WAS-R) is presented. The WAS-R is improving psychometric problems of the Work Ability Index (WAI), i.e. a ceiling effect. Addi-tionally, it is integrating factors of work place and social environment into the measurement of work ability. Few studies have been using the WAS-R, and no validation study has been published, yet. We trans-lated the 54-item version of the WAS-R in a translation-backtranslation process. A sample of 1,052 senior managers of the German chemical industry was used for construct validation. Participants completed an online-survey of the WAS-R, the WAI, measures of job attitude and questions concerning retirement age. Factorial structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of the subscales of the WAS-R ranged from .58 to .94. The WAS-R total score was correlated significantly with the WAI (r = .56, p < .001), job satisfaction (r = .73, p < .001), desired retirement age (r = .16, p = <.001), and willingness to return to one’s organization, if asked (r =.32, p < .001). Lower skew and kurtosis indicated a better distribution of the WAS-R than of the WAI. We compared results from our sample with a subsample of the Australian WAS-R study. The German version of the WAS-R extends our understanding of work ability by integrating characteristics of work place and social environment. Its psychometric properties allow para-metric statistical analysis. Interventions aiming at the improvement of work ability can be derived from its detailed subscales.

KW - Psychology

KW - Business psychology

U2 - 10.1093/geront/gnu106

DO - 10.1093/geront/gnu106

M3 - Conference abstract in journal

VL - 54

SP - 328

JO - The Gerontologist

JF - The Gerontologist

SN - 0016-9013

IS - Suppl_2

Y2 - 5 November 2014 through 9 November 2014

ER -