Allied health professionals cognitive workload scale in Malacca, Malaysia: A psychometric properties evaluation

Md Rasid S 1 , Mohd Rasdi HF 1 , Cheng JW 1 , Mohd Suadi Nata DH 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 Program of Occupational Therapy, Center for Rehabilitation and Special Needs Studies (ICAREHAB), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Center for Toxicology and Health Risk (CORE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Work, 2025 Feb;80(2):836-849.
PMID: 40172848 DOI: 10.1177/10519815241290024

Abstract

BackgroundCognitive workload has emerged as one of the most important topics that must be understood and addressed because of its impact on errors and work performance that will compromise patient safety. With increasing patient health demands, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) tend to have heavier cognitive workloads and impact on personal well-being.ObjectiveOur study aims to determine the validity and reliability of a cognitive workload scale for AHP in Malacca, Malaysia and examine its effect on personal well-being.MethodThe instrument comprises items related to human reliability, human-computer interaction, decision-making, skilled performance, training, work stress and cognitive ergonomic effect. The content validation was conducted using the Content Validity Questionnaire with eight expert panels' responses. 120 AHP working in Malacca were recruited using purposive sampling and took part in the study, completing the online questionnaires. To evaluate the validity based on relationships with other measures, the SMEQ scale was also administered. AMOS Version 24 and IBM SPSS Version 26 were used in data analysis.ResultsThe instrument showed good content validity (CVI > 0.74). After the deletion of six items, the instrument has good convergent validity (AVE > 0.5), discriminant validity (HTMT Ratio  0.7), internal consistency (alpha > 0.7), construct validity the ratio (1.865), CFI (0.900), PCFI (0.821), PNFI (0.738), RMSEA (0.085), IFI (0.90) and test-retest reliability (ICC > 0.6). The study found a positive correlation with the Malay version of SMEQ. This study also found that the AHP in the laboratory group have higher work stress and experiences more cognitive load effects, leading to lower personal well-being.ConclusionOverall, the final version of a scale measuring the cognitive workload is valid and reliable in assessing cognitive ergonomics among AHP. Testing cognitive workload on different work populations, including manual and non-manual workers, is recommended for future studies.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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