Validity of the Danish version of Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ-DK)

Background: Occupational balance is a well-known concept within occupational therapy. The OBQ (Wagman and Håkansson, 2014) is developed to measure occupational balance. The OBQ is a 13-item questionnaire with 4 response... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Occupational balance is a well-known concept within occupational therapy. The OBQ (Wagman and Håkansson, 2014) is developed to measure occupational balance. The OBQ is a 13-item questionnaire with 4 response categories and has been translated into Danish. The aim of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the OBQ-DK using the Rasch model.

Method:
Postal survey data to working aged participants (n=366; 69% women) were included. Their responses to the OBQ-DK were evaluated by Rasch analysis, partial credit model.

Results: Initially, Rasch analysis failed to support the unidimensional structure of the 13-item OBQ-DK (Chi-Square 104.5 (df 52; p <0.001). All items had ordered threshold. Differential Item Functioning was absent across contextual factors (sex, age, education). Adjustment of local item dependency between two items and removal of four misfitting items resulted in perfect fit to the Rasch model (Chi-Square 36.85 (df 32; p = 0.254). Reliability was high (PSI = 0.82). The four deleted misfitting items formed an additional unidimensional scale (Chi-Square 19.35 (df 16; p = 0.251). Reliability was acceptable (PSI = 0.78).

Conclusion: The study provides evidence for OBQ-DK’s construct validity. The Rasch analysis produced a 2-dimensional, 13-item questionnaire assessing the persons’ perception of occupational balance. Further research is required to establish the measures’ validity in various populations.

Application to Practice:
The results and small number of items makes it feasible to implement the OBQ-DK into clinical and/or research settings, where measuring occupational balance is needed.