Presenteeism in Brazilian Universities: Psychometric Properties of Assessment Instruments

Abstract

Presenteeism represents a phenomenon that occurs when people are physically present in the workplace but are functionally absent. The aims of this study were to estimate the presenteeism in university professors and administrative personnel of Brazilian public universities and to evaluate the psychometric properties of presenteeism instruments in the sample. The evaluation of presenteeism was carried out using the Work Limitation questionnaire (WLQ) and the Stanford Presenteeism scale (SPS-6). The psychometric properties of the instruments were analyzed using c onfirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A total of 533 workers participated in the study (271 academic staff members and 262 university professors). The presenteeism index in the sample was .05. The CFA of the refined models showed adequate adjustments to the sample. However, the analysis of the explained variance of the presenteeism concept revealed strong contribution of the WLQ factors and the theoretical fragility of the SPS-6. The results provided evidence of the validity and reliability of the WLQ for the assessment of presenteeism in Brazilian university workers.

Keywords

• occupational health
• presenteeism
• psychometrics