Validity and Reliability of the 8-Item Work Limitations Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Psychometrics
• Human Resources Management

Background:

• The Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ) is a tool to measure work limitations due to health.
• Assessing the psychometric properties of shorter versions of established questionnaires is crucial for efficient research.
• The 8-item WLQ is a condensed version of the original 25-item WLQ.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the factorial validity, scale reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the 8-item WLQ.
• To assess the suitability of the 8-item WLQ for use in a public university system employee population.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of de-identified data from 10,165 employees who completed an annual Health Assessment (2009-2015).
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the latent structure and scale reliability.
• Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used for test-retest reliability; convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using health/performance and demographic variables, respectively.

Main Results:

• The 8-item WLQ demonstrated excellent model fit with a 1-factor model (CFI=0.99, TLI=0.99, RMSEA=0.03, SRMR=0.01).
• Acceptable scale reliability (0.69) and very good test-retest reliability (ICC=0.78) were found.
• The WLQ showed expected low-to-moderate associations with health/performance variables and weak associations with demographic variables.

Conclusions:

• The 8-item WLQ is a reliable and valid measure for assessing work limitations in public university employees.
• The findings support the use of the 8-item WLQ as a practical alternative to the 25-item WLQ in research settings.
• This validates a shorter instrument for occupational health and psychometric research.