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Development of a protective mental work demands questionnaire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2020

Felix S. Hussenoeder ,
Ines Conrad ,
Steffi G. Riedel-Heller  and
Francisca S. Rodriguez
Felix S. Hussenoeder*
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Ines Conrad
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Steffi G. Riedel-Heller
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Francisca S. Rodriguez
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany Center for Cognitive Science, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Felix S. Hussenoeder, Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Ph.-Rosenthal-Str. 55, 04103Leipzig, Germany. Phone: +49 (0)341/9715404; Fax +49 (0)3419724569. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Objectives:

Research shows that mental demands at work affect later-life cognitive functioning and dementia risk, but systematic assessment of protective mental work demands (PMWDs) is still missing. The goal of this research was to develop a questionnaire to assess PMWDs.

Design:

The instrument was developed in accordance with internationally recognized scientific standards comprising conceptualization, pretesting, and validation via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), principal component analysis (PCA), and multiple regression analyses.

Participants:

We included 346 participants, 72.3% female, with an average age of 56.3 years.

Measurement:

Item pool, sociodemographic questions, and cognitive tests: Trail-Making Test A/B, Word List Recall, Verbal Fluency Test, Benton Visual Retention Test, Reading Minds in the Eyes Test.

Results:

CFAs of eight existing PMWD-concepts revealed weaker fit indices than PCA of the item pool that resulted in five concepts. We computed multivariate regression analyses with all 13 PMWD-concepts as predictors of cognitive functioning. After removing PMWD-concepts that predicted less than two cognitive test scores and excluding others due to overlapping items, the final questionnaire contained four PMWD-concepts: Mental Workload (three items, Cronbach’s α = .58), Verbal Demands (four, Cronbach’s α = .74), Information Load (six, Cronbach’s α = .83), and Extended Job Control (six, Cronbach’s α = .83).

Conclusions:

The PMWD-Questionnaire intends to assess protective mental demands at the workplace. Information processing demands and job control make up the primary components emphasizing their relevance regarding cognitive health in old age. Long-term follow-up studies will need to validate construct validity with respect to dementia risk.

Keywords

mental demandsworkplacejob demandscognitive functioningtest developmentjob controlinformation loadbrain health
Type
Original Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 33 , Special Issue 7: Issue Theme: Cognitive Aging: Subjective and Objective , July 2021 , pp. 715 - 726
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2020

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