Development and psychometric evaluation of a Total Worker Health® practice scale

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals increasingly need to assess and mitigate a broad scope of worker safety, health, and well-being concerns that extend beyond traditional OSH training curricula. Work-related and non-work-related psychosocial hazards, chronic physical and mental health conditions, and changing work arrangements call for an integrative, public health approach to occupational risk management; this approach has been called, "Total Worker Health®" by United States public health authorities (Schulte et al. 2019). OSH professionals need education to ensure that Total Worker Health (TWH) practice approaches are consistently and effectively applied. This study sought to develop a valid, reliable scale that could be used to assess TWH skills gaps that can be addressed with tailored, competency-based curricula.