Reliability and validity of Chinese version NASA-TLX and SWAT in evaluating mental workload of community physicians / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the reliability and validity of Chinese version National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and Subjective Work Assessment Technique (SWAT) in evaluating mental workload of community physicians.Methods One hundred and ten community physicians selected by convenience sampling method from Shanghai were recruited.The split-half reliability,Cronbach's α coefficient and Item-total coefficients were adopted to assess the reliability and the validity of Chinese version NASA-TLX and SWAT scales in evaluating the metal workload of participants.Results For NASA-TLX,the Split-Half,Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.703 and 0.619 respectively,all Item-total coefficients (except for performance item) were greater than 0.4 (P ＜ 0.01).For SWAT,the Split-Half,Cronbach's α coefficient of was 0.647 and 0.669 respectively,Item-total coefficients were all greater than 0.4 (P ＜ 0.01).Factor analysis showed that two scales had good structure validity; item discrimination showed satisfactory item validity (except for performance item).The Spearman correlation coefficients between two scales ranged from 0.359 to 0.465 (P ＜ 0.01).Both of the modified versions of NASA-TLX had better reliability and validity than the original one,the one with removed both performance and frustrate item was better than one with removed performance item only.Conclusions The Chinese version NASA-TLX and SWAT can serve as reliable and valid instruments for assessing the community physicians' perception of mental workload in China; and the modified version of NASA-TLX especially the one with removed performance and frustrate item seems to work better than the original one.