Elsevier

NeuroToxicology

Volume 24, Issues 4–5, August 2003, Pages 541-546
NeuroToxicology

Evaluation of the French Version of EUROQUEST: A Questionnaire for Neurotoxic Symptoms

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-813X(03)00075-5Get rights and content

Abstract

Background: EUROQUEST was designed to explore various neuropsychiatric symptoms caused by neurotoxic agents in occupational epidemiological studies. This paper was aimed at assessing (i) the internal consistency of the French version of EUROQUEST, (ii) its sensitivity to age, educational level and exposure, (iii) and its convergent validity by examining relationships between declared symptoms and results from psychometric tests on the same mental functions. Design: Data from four cross-sectional studies were selected: 180 workers exposed to toluene, mixed solvents or anaesthetic gas, and 588 non-exposed ones. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed by computing Cronbach’s αs. Sensitivity to age, educational level and exposure were assessed with multiple linear regression models. Relationships between EUROQUEST scores and correspondent neuropsychological tests were assessed with Pearson’s correlation coefficients. The relationships between EUROQUEST domain specific scores, age and educational level were evaluated for men and women from the Reference group. Most of the analyses were performed in men and women separately. Results: The results of the Cronbach’s αs computed for each EUROQUEST domain, showed a reasonable internal consistency for the questionnaire. For both women and men, memory problems and sleep disorders increased significantly with age. A significant association between EUROQUEST scores and exposure to neurotoxic agents was found for workers exposed to anaesthetic gas only. In addition, EUROQUEST memory symptoms from the Reference population were found to be correlated with two memory neuropsychological tests, both for men and women. Conclusion: Our results showed a high internal consistency and a good convergent validity on assessed domains. Moreover, they showed a significant sensitivity to age, educational level and highlighted sensitivity to anaesthetic gas exposure.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Long-term occupational exposure to heavy metals, solvents or pesticides may cause neuropsychiatric symptoms characterised by affective changes in personality, deterioration in cognitive abilities (Baker, 1994) and impairment in sensory or neuro-vegetative domains. Exposure to these agents frequently occurs in various industries and is a potential hazard to millions of workers around the world (Van Vliet et al., 1989). Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated significant associations

Study Population

Data from four cross-sectional studies were selected: (1) 113 printing plant workers (64 exposed to toluene and 49 non-exposed); (2) 97 male painters exposed to mixed solvents and 96 non-exposed ones; (3) 43 women and 19 men from a medical operating staff exposed to anaesthetic gas, and 43 women and 19 men unexposed to anaesthetic gas; (4) 410 non-exposed workers (201 women and 209 men) enrolled in a health check-up centre; this population will be named “Reference population”. EUROQUEST was

Descriptive Results

The mean scores of each original EUROQUEST domain for Reference women, exposed and non-exposed men are presented in Table 1.

Internal Consistency

Table 2 gives the results from Cronbach’s αs computed on Reference population. In general the questionnaire showed a good internal consistency of the domains: all αs were above 0.6 with the exception of the “sleep disorders”, and most of them were above 0.75.

Sensitivity to Change

The sensitivity to age, educational level (assessed with vocabulary test) of original EUROQUEST scores was evaluated

DISCUSSION

Our descriptive results indicate that the prevalences of symptoms were quite homogenous between the different non-exposed populations, and as expected greater for the exposed groups.

The computation of Cronbach’s α on each score of the original structure showed a good internal consistency: the αs ranged between 0.58 and 0.85, and 8 of 11 were above 7 (Nunnally, 1978). The weakest α is observed for “Sleep disorders” domain: two of the five items related to this domain are not very specific of

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