International Journal of Nursing Studies 44 (2007) 814–825 Psychosocial work environment of hospital workers: Validation of a comprehensive assessment scale Birgit Aust a,Ã , Reiner Rugulies a , Janne Skakon a , Teresa Scherzer b , Chris Jensen c a National Institute of Occupational Health, Lerso Parkalle´105, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark b Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0612, USA c Research Unit for Maritim Medicine, Ostergade 81-83, DK-6700 Esbjerg, Denmark Received 20 December 2004; received in revised form 18 December 2005; accepted 21 January 2006 Abstract Background: Studies have shown that adverse workplace factors can increase the risk of ill-health in hospital workers, but more comprehensive measures of the psychosocial work environment are needed. Objectives: To test a comprehensive and theory-based psychosocial work environment questionnaire and analyze associations with mental health in a sample of Danish hospital workers. Design and participants: Questionnaire-based cross-sectional study with 343 female employees from a large Danish hospital, including patient care workers (nurses, nurse assistants, midwives) and laboratory technicians. Methods: The psychosocial work environment was measured with 14 scales from the Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire, version I, covering three main areas: demands at work, work organization and interpersonal relations at work. We further measured self-rated mental health and sociodemographic and employment characteristics of the participants. Cronbach’s alphas, analyses of covariance, one-sample t-tests, partial correlations and linear regression models were used to analyze data. Results: Of the 14 work psychosocial workplace scales 12 showed a satisfactory internal consistency (a40.70). Patient care workers had more quantitative, emotional and cognitive demands (all p-values o0.001), higher work pace (po0:001) and more role conflicts (p ¼ 0:01) than laboratory technicians, but also better work organization, including more influence at work, better possibilities for development and a higher meaning of work (all p-values o0.001). Both patient care workers and laboratory technicians had substantially higher scores on the demand scales and lower scores on the influence at work scale than the general Danish working population. Further analyses showed that high levels of demands at work and low levels of work organization and problematic interpersonal relations at work were associated with lower self-rated mental health. Conclusion: The Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire is a suitable instrument to measure the psychosocial work environment of hospital workers. The comprehensive assessment of the psychosocial work environment helps tailoring interventions to the specific needs of different occupational groups. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nurses; Patient care; Mental health; Occupational health; Questionnaires ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijnurstu 0020-7489/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.01.008 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.:+45 39 16 54 64; fax:+45 39 16 52 01. E-mail address: bma@ami.dk (B. Aust).