Cognitive interviewing used in the development and validation of Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire in Sweden

The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) has primarily been validated through psychometric methods. Therefore, cognitive interviewing was included as part of the validation project of COPSOQ in Sweden. The aim is to discuss the use of cognitive interviews for development and validation of the Swedish version of COPSOQ. Informants were selected to achieve variation in age, gender, occupation, and region of residence. Individual interviews were performed with 26 informants using a think aloud approach combined with flexible concurrent probing based on an interview guide. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interviews were conducted in rounds followed by an initial analysis by the two first authors before adjustments of the questionnaire items were made. Currently, content analysis is ongoing. The cognitive interviews provided insight into what people actually reflected upon while answering the questionnaire. This added new knowledge about how key terms such as ‘work place’ were understood by the respondents and also it helped identifying problems in the interpretation of specific words. The study has been approved by the Regional Ethics Board in Southern Sweden and is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE)