Validity of the effort/reward imbalance questionnaire in health professionals from six Latin-American countries

Background: This study tests the validity and the invariance of ERI questionnaire (ERIQ) data from health professionals in six different Latin-American countries. Methods: One thousand two hundred ninety-two (1292) participants who worked in hospitals in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela completed the ERI and GHQ questionnaires. Partial correlations were carried out as well as reliability statistics and confirmatory factor analyses to examine factor structure and invariance of ERIQ in each subsample. Results: Overall confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the theoretical structure of the ERIQ. The effort and overcommitment scales were invariant (equivalent) across the six countries, but the reward scale was only partially invariant. Several associations between ERIQ and mental health remain significant after controlling for sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: Although the validity of the ERIQ' scales were generally satisfactory in most Latin-American samples, future research should examine in depth the equivalence of reward scale across Latin-American cultures.