• Rozana Mesquita Ciconelli, SoárezPatrícia Coelho dePC, Clarissa Campos Guaragna Kowalski, and Marcos Bosi Ferraz.
• Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Botucatu 740, Vila Clementino, São Paulo (SP), Brazil, CEP 04023-062. rozana@reumato.epm.br
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2006 Nov 7; 124 (6): 325332325-32.

Context And ObjectiveIt is still difficult to measure work productivity losses caused by health problems. Despite the importance given to this issue over the last few years, most instruments for performing this task are available only in the English language. This study translated the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment _ General Health (WPAI-GH) Questionnaire into Brazilian Portuguese, adapted it cross-culturally and evaluated its reliability and validity.Design And SettingCross-sectional survey to test scale reliability and validity, at São Paulo Hospital and the clinic of the Rheumatology division of Universidade Federal de São Paulo-Escola Paulista de Medicina (Unifesp-EPM).MethodsData were obtained from a survey that incorporated the WPAI-GH, short form-36 (SF-36) and some demographic questions. The questionnaires were administered by interview to 100 subjects.ResultsDescriptive statistics was used to characterize the subjects. The intraclass correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha were used to assess the reliability and internal consistency of the instrument. Intraclass correlation coefficients from 0.79 to 0.90 indicated good reliability. Cronbach's alpha of 0.74 indicated good internal consistency. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess validity. There were significant positive relationships between the WPAI-GH and SF-36.ConclusionThe Brazilian Portuguese version of the WPAI-GH is a reliable and valid measurement tool and may be useful for those who seek to measure the impact on productivity of health problems among populations of Brazilian employees.

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