Design and psychometric analysis of the safety harness usability and comfort assessment tool (SH UCAT)
Parvin Sepehr,
Mousa Jabbari,
Hassan Sadeghi Naeini,
Ali Salehi Sahl Abadi,
Mansour Ziaei,
Asma Zare,
Amin Kazemi
Affiliations
Parvin Sepehr
Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Mousa Jabbari
Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Workplace Health Promotion Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Corresponding author. Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Hassan Sadeghi Naeini
Industrial Design Department, School of Architecture & Environmental Design, Iran University of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran
Ali Salehi Sahl Abadi
Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Mansour Ziaei
Department of Health, Safety and Environment, School of Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran; Systems Environmental Health and Energy Research Center, The Persian Gulf Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran
Asma Zare
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Sirjan School of Medical Sciences, Sirjan, Iran
Amin Kazemi
School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Purpose: The present study aimed to design a quantitative tool to evaluate the comfort and usability of working at height safety harnesses. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in both qualitative and quantitative sections in 2022. The research steps included field interviews, an expert panel, and compiling the questionnaires for assessing the comfort and usability of the harness. The items of tools were designed based on the qualitative part of the research and review of the literature. The face and content validity of the instrument were assessed. Its reliability was also evaluated using the test-retest method. Results: Two tools were developed including a comfort questionnaire with 13 questions and a usability questionnaire with 10 questions. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of these instruments were 0.83 and 0.79, respectively. Additionally, the content and face validity indices were 0.97 and 3.89 for the comfort questionnaire and 0.991 and 4 for the usability questionnaire, respectively. Conclusions: The designed tools showed appropriate validity and reliability and could be used to evaluate the comfort and usability of safety harnesses. On the other hand, the criteria used in the designed tools could be employed in user-centered harness designs.
