مرجان فیروزه

 Modified Euro Quest questionnaire to assess neurological and psychiatric effects caused by exposure to organic solvents is used. This study investigates the validity, reliability, and usability of the modified Euro Quest questionnaire in Iran.

 This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 206 workers of color and textile industries. Modified Euro Quest questionnaire was translated into Persian by using the forward-backward translation standard method. To evaluate the content validity, convergent validity, internal consistency, and reliability of the questionnaire were used the index CVI, Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbachchr('39')s alpha, and test-retest. The convergent validity was compared, results of the questionnaire, with results of mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI).

 The relationship between the modified Euroquest questionnaire was compare with the MMSE test and the MFIchr('39')s questionnaire, Pearson correlation coefficients, and the results showed in order - 0.86 and 0.65, which represents a significant inverse correlation between this questionnaire with MMSE test(p>0.001) And a moderate correlation with the MFIchr('39')s questionnaire(p>0.001). Content validity index (CVI) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were obtained in order amounts of ≤0.79 and 0.92, which was acceptable. The final questionnaire, Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient, was calculated (α =0.84). 

 The modified Euroquest Persian version is a valuable tool to assess the neurological and psychological effects caused by exposure to organic solvents in Iranian workers.

Participatory ergonomics is the concept of active participation of all components of an organization in the development and implementation of ergonomics knowledge in order to enhance the working environment, quality, productivity and safety of that organization. One of the main goals of participatory ergonomics is increasing employee's satisfaction and changing the workplace into an appropriate environment with minimal health and safety risks. This study aims to investigate the impact to implementing participatory ergonomics on the quality of worker's work life.

This interventional descriptive and analytical study has been carried out in one of the steel making companies of Iran during 2010-2011. In this study participatory ergonomics has been implemented in several stages. Evaluating the participant's quality of work life was performed using NIOSH quality of work life questionnaire before and after the intervention. For statistical analysis SPSS 16 for Windows was used and descriptive statistics and paired t-test was performed.

Although staff's quality of work life according to their average score of questionnaires was ranked in good level either before and after implementation of the participation ergonomics, results of paired T-test analysis showed a statistically significant improvement in the quality of working conditions of workers following such intervention (P<0/001).

Enhancement in the quality of work life has a considerable effect on achieving the goal of worker's health promotion and reducing accidents, and implementation of participatory ergonomics with cooperation of industry leaders can be considered as an effective step toward achieving worker's health and satisfaction.