Journal Article

Development of a protective mental work demands questionnaire

Conrad, Ines, Riedel-Heller, Steffi G., Hussenoeder, Felix S., Rodriguez, Francisca S.

2021

Overview

ABSTRACTObjectivesResearch 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. DesignThe 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. ParticipantsWe included 346 participants, 72.3% female, with an average age of 56.3 years. MeasurementItem 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. ResultsCFAs 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). ConclusionsThe 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.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press,Elsevier Inc
• Subject: Age / Alzheimer's disease / Brain health / Cognition / Cognition & reasoning / Cognitive functioning / Concept formation / Concepts / Confirmatory factor analysis / Dementia / Dementia - diagnosis / End users / Evaluation / Factor analysis / Factor Analysis, Statistical / Female / Fluency / Gender / Humans / information load / Information processing / Job control / job demands / Literature reviews / Longitudinal studies / Male / Measurement / Measures / mental demands / Mental health / Middle Aged / Neuropsychological Tests / Original Research Article / Principal components analysis / Protective Factors / Quantitative psychology / Questionnaires / Reading tests / Research design / Risk Assessment / Sociodemographics / Sociological Factors / Statistical analysis / Surveys and Questionnaires / test development / Test scores / Validity / Word lists / Work / workplace / Workplace - psychology / Workplaces