2. Coding Rules for Interviewers
The coding rules below apply to the WPAI:GH, WPAI:SHP, WPAI:GH/SHP and the WPAI:AS, as noted.
Are you currently employed? (All versions)
Yes: works part-time or full-time; self-employed; works in family business; on vacation from paid employment, e.g., schoolteachers on leave for the summer. No: does not work for pay; only does volunteer work; usually works, but has been laid-off or unemployed during past seven days; seasonal workers not currently working.
Work time missed due to specified health problem (WPAI:SHP, WPAI:GH/SHP and WPAI:AS only)
Include: any time taken off from work due to problem; doctor visits for problem; trip to pharmacy to get medication for problem; side effect of medication for problem; reason was partly problem and partly something else. Exclude: if it happened today; if the respondent is not sure, i.e., can't say if it was problem or something else.
Work time missed due to other health reasons (WPAI:GH/SHP only)
Include: time taken off from work for health reasons unrelated to target disease; visits to doctor, dentist, and pharmacy. Partly health, partly something else, e.g., couldn't shovel snow to get car out because of back problem. Says no health problem, just had a pain, cold, fatigue, etc. Exclude: hours missed due to specified problem; non-health reasons.
Work time missed due to any other reasons (WPAI:GH and WPAI:GH/SHP only)
Include: time taken off from work for vacations, holidays, compensatory time; time missed because of required study visits. Exclude: hours missed for any health reason.
Work time missed due to any other reasons (WPAI:SHP only)
Include: time taken off from work for vacations, holidays, compensatory time; time missed because of required study visits; hours missed due to health that is unrelated to specified problem. Exclude: hours missed due to specified problem.
Actual hours worked (WPAI:GH, WPAI:SHP, WPAI:GH/SHP only)
Include: actual hours worked, including overtime (paid, unpaid). Exclude: vacation, holidays, sick time, personal leave; any paid hours not actually worked, e.g. compensatory time.
Productivity
Respondent is asked for overall productivity on days actually went to work. If productivity differed greatly from day to day, for example, one day was 0 and one day was 10, ask him to respond for all days, on average. Probe: "Thinking of all the days together, what was the average effect on your work?"
Regular daily activities
Regular activities are expected to be different for every respondent. Regular activities could be exercising, watching television, gardening, sewing, etc. The intention of the question is to have the respondent think of his activities and then make a global evaluation of how difficult it was to do these activities. If impairment differed greatly from day to day or from activity to activity, probe: "Thinking of all the days together, and all of your usual activities, what was the average effect on your daily routine?"
1. General Guidelines
In the general health version (WPAI:GH), respondents are asked questions about work and activity impairment due to health problems. In the specific health problem version (WPAI:SHP), respondents are asked questions concerning impairment due to the target health problem (e.g., arthritis). In the combination version, WPAI:GH/SHP respondents are asked about impairment due to a specified health problem and impairment due to other health reasons. The sum of impairment due to the specified problem and other health reasons is considered impairment due to all health problems. The WPAI:GH/SHP, therefore, measures impairment due to the specified problem and all health problems.
The WPAI elicits hours worked (all versions), hours missed due to the target condition (WPAI:GH/SHP, WPAI:SHP, WPAI:AS), hours missed due to other health problems (WPAI:GH/SHP) and hours missed for any other reasons (WPAI:SHP, WPAI:GH, WPAI:GH/SHP). Hours missed for "other reasons" is not used in the scoring, but only as a prompt to the respondent to exclude those hours from the count of actual hours worked. In the WPAI:AS, respondents are asked about usual hours worked, not actual hours worked.
3. Coding Rules for Self-Administration
Employment status:
If Q1 = YES or Q1 = NO or missing and hours missed or worked > 0, then employed. If Q1 = missing and hours missed and worked = 0, then not employed.
Hours missed
If hours worked = 0, then productivity while at work is not applicable.
If the line or box is slashed through or there is a response of NA, code as zero. If respondent enters a range of hours, enter the midpoint. If respondent records "+" after the number of hours, ignore the "+". Hours are usually rounded to one decimal point.
Missing or unreadable response
Responses from other assessments should not be used to eliminate missing data. For example, if a subject indicates he works 40 hours at one assessment, but leaves that question blank on a subsequent assessment, the blank response is coded missing.
WPAI scores are based on 1-item (presenteeism, activitity impairment), 2-items (absenteeism) and multiple items (overall work productivity); a score can not be calculated if there is a missing response to the corresponding item. An analysis of absenteeism would include only those subjects with responses to hours missed and to hours worked; an analysis of presenteeism would include only those subjects with a response to productity while working. For the analysis of overall work productivity, scores can only be calculated for subjects with responses to hours missed, hours worked and productivity while working.
Productivity questions
If the words at the end of the scale are circled, enter the corresponding number, i.e., a "0" or "10". If 2 responses are cirlced, enter the midpoint and round to nearest integer.
