OWAS inter-rater reliability. 2021

Christian Lins, and Sebastian Fudickar, and Andreas Hein
Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Division Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology, Marie-Curie-Straße 2, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany; Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstr. 140, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany. Electronic address: christian.lins@idmt.fraunhofer.de.

The Ovako Working posture Assessment System (OWAS) is a commonly used observational assessment method for determining the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. OWAS claims to be suitable in the application for untrained persons but there is not enough evidence for this assumption. In this paper, inter-rater (inter-observer) reliability (agreement) is examined down to the level of individual postures and categories. For this purpose, the postures of 20 volunteers have been observed by 3 varying human raters in a laboratory setting and the inter-rater agreement against reference values was determined. A high agreement of over 98%(κ=0.98) was found for the postures of the arms but lower agreements were found for posture classification of the legs (66-97%,κ=0.85) and the upper body (80-96%,κ=0.85). No significant difference was found between raters with and without intense prior training in physical therapy. Consequently, the results confirm the general reliability of the OWAS method especially for raters with non-specialized background but suggests weaknesses in the reliable detection of a few particular postures.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009140 Musculoskeletal Diseases Diseases of the muscles and their associated ligaments and other connective tissue and of the bones and cartilage viewed collectively. Orthopedic Disorders,Musculoskeletal Disease,Orthopedic Disorder
D011187 Posture The position or physical attitude of the body. Postures
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D006804 Ergonomics The science of designing, building or equipping mechanical devices or artificial environments to the anthropometric, physiological, or psychological requirements of the people who will use them. Engineering Psychology,Human Engineering,Cognitive Ergonomics,Ergonomic Assessment,Human Factors Engineering,Human Factors and Ergonomics,Organizational Ergonomics,Physical Ergonomics,Psychology, Engineering,Visual Ergonomics,Cognitive Ergonomic,Ergonomic,Ergonomic Assessments,Ergonomic, Cognitive,Ergonomic, Organizational,Ergonomic, Physical,Ergonomic, Visual,Ergonomics, Cognitive,Ergonomics, Organizational,Ergonomics, Physical,Ergonomics, Visual,Human Factors Engineerings,Organizational Ergonomic,Physical Ergonomic,Visual Ergonomic
D015203 Reproducibility of Results The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results. Reliability and Validity,Reliability of Result,Reproducibility Of Result,Reproducibility of Finding,Validity of Result,Validity of Results,Face Validity,Reliability (Epidemiology),Reliability of Results,Reproducibility of Findings,Test-Retest Reliability,Validity (Epidemiology),Finding Reproducibilities,Finding Reproducibility,Of Result, Reproducibility,Of Results, Reproducibility,Reliabilities, Test-Retest,Reliability, Test-Retest,Result Reliabilities,Result Reliability,Result Validities,Result Validity,Result, Reproducibility Of,Results, Reproducibility Of,Test Retest Reliability,Validity and Reliability,Validity, Face
D015588 Observer Variation The failure by the observer to measure or identify a phenomenon accurately, which results in an error. Sources for this may be due to the observer's missing an abnormality, or to faulty technique resulting in incorrect test measurement, or to misinterpretation of the data. Two varieties are inter-observer variation (the amount observers vary from one another when reporting on the same material) and intra-observer variation (the amount one observer varies between observations when reporting more than once on the same material). Bias, Observer,Interobserver Variation,Intraobserver Variation,Observer Bias,Inter-Observer Variability,Inter-Observer Variation,Interobserver Variability,Intra-Observer Variability,Intra-Observer Variation,Intraobserver Variability,Inter Observer Variability,Inter Observer Variation,Inter-Observer Variabilities,Inter-Observer Variations,Interobserver Variabilities,Interobserver Variations,Intra Observer Variability,Intra Observer Variation,Intra-Observer Variabilities,Intra-Observer Variations,Intraobserver Variabilities,Intraobserver Variations,Observer Variations,Variabilities, Inter-Observer,Variabilities, Interobserver,Variabilities, Intra-Observer,Variabilities, Intraobserver,Variability, Inter-Observer,Variability, Interobserver,Variability, Intra-Observer,Variability, Intraobserver,Variation, Inter-Observer,Variation, Interobserver,Variation, Intra-Observer,Variation, Intraobserver,Variation, Observer,Variations, Inter-Observer,Variations, Interobserver,Variations, Intra-Observer,Variations, Intraobserver,Variations, Observer

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