Three-Dimensional Work Fatigue Inventory

Last Updated

December 12, 2022

Purpose

Provide separate and commensurate assessments of physical, mental, and emotional work fatigue.

Acronym 3D-WFI

Area of Assessment

Cognition
Mental Health
Stress & Coping
Occupational Performance

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

CDE Status

Not a CDE -- last searched 12/12/2022

Non-Specific Patient Population

18 items (6 items in each of the three domains of physical, mental, and emotional fatigue)
Three items in each domain assess the extreme tiredness aspect and 3 items assess the reduced functional capacity of work fatigue
Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = never to 4 = everyday)
Higher scores reflect higher work fatigue

Number of Items

pen or pencil

minutes

Required Training

No Training

Adult

18 - 64

years

Instrument Reviewers

Katelyn Matkin, Doctoral Student in Vocational Rehabilitation, University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction of Lindsay Clark, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medicine

ICF Domain

Activity
Participation

Measurement Domain

Emotion
Cognition

Professional Association Recommendation

None found -- last searched 12/12/2022

Normative Data

German Workers: (Frone et al., 2018; n = 439; mean age = 39.24 years (12.32); female = 73%; average job tenure = 14.99 (11.48) years)

Mean Physical Fatigue score: 2.09 (0.91)
Mean Mental Fatigue score: 2.10 (0.90)
Mean Emotional Fatigue score: 1.67 (1.02)

Military Personnel: (Frone & Blais, 2019, n = 1375; male = 86%; Age < 35 years = 35%, 35-54 years = 55%, 55 years and older = 10%; stratified random sample of non-deployed regular force and primary reserve Royal Canadian Air Force [RCAF] personnel)

Mean Physical Fatigue score: 3.06 (1.25)
Mean Mental Fatigue score: 3.08 (1.28)
Mean Emotional Fatigue score: 2.50 (1.35)

Internal Consistency

US Workers: (Frone & Tidewell, 2015; n = 2,477; male = 52%, mean age = 40 years)

Excellent for physical work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94*)
Excellent for mental work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.95*)
Excellent for emotional work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96*)

German Workers: (Frone et al., 2018)

Excellent for physical work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.93*)
Excellent for mental work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94*)
Excellent for emotional work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96*)

Military Personnel: (Frone & Blais, 2019)

Excellent for physical work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.97*)
Excellent for mental work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98*)
Excellent for emotional work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.99*)

Lebanese Physicians: (Sfeir et al., 2022; n = 401; male = 57.9%; mean age = 34.5 (13.48))

Excellent for physical work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96*)
Excellent for mental work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.95*)
Excellent for emotional work fatigue scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.97*)

*Scores higher than 0.9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions.

Construct Validity

U.S. Workers: (Frone et al., 2015)

Convergent validity:

Physical and mental job demands primarily predicted physical (b = 0.20, p < 0.001) and mental (b = 0.21, p < 0.001) work fatigue, respectively.
Although emotional demands predicted higher levels of emotional work fatigue (b = 0.27, p < 0.001), they also predicted higher levels of physical (b = 0.22, p < 0.001) and mental work fatigue (b = 0.22, p < 0.001).
Job autonomy was negatively related to physical (b = -0.18, p < 0.001) and mental work fatigue (b = -0.13, p < 0.05), but was unrelated to emotional work fatigue (b = -0.06, ns).

Discriminant validity:

The items associated with the three hypothesized factors for work fatigue each loaded highly on its respective factor (0.82 to 0.90 for physical, 0.82 to 0.93 for mental, 0.80 to 0.93 for emotional; p < 0.001 for all loadings), thereby discriminating between physical, mental, and emotional work fatigue.
Initiated and received job interdependence, lack of promotion opportunity, and friendship formation had nonsignificant and near-zero correlations with all three types of fatigue.

German Workers: (Frone et al., 2018)

Discriminant validity:

The items associated with the three hypothesized factors for work fatigue each loaded highly on its respective factor (0.74 to 0.92 for physical, 0.77 to 0.93 for mental, 0.71 to 0.96 for emotional; p < 0.001 for all loadings), thereby discriminating between physical, mental, and emotional work fatigue.
The correlations among the work fatigue factors support the discriminative validity of the three types of work fatigue:
- Between physical and mental work fatigue (r = 0.59, p < 0.001)
- Between physical and emotional work fatigue ( r = 0.50, p < 0.001)
- Between mental and emotional work fatigue ( r = 0.65, p < 0.001)

Content Validity

Content validity of the 3D-WFI was determined by a panel of 21 experts specializing in sociology and various areas of psychology (e.g., biological, clinical, developmental, and social), who had no affiliation with the present research project. From the results of substantive agreement and substantive validity indices, Frone et al. (2015) concluded that the instrument has a high level of content validity.

Bibliography

Frone, M., & Tidewell, M. (2015). The meaning and measure of work fatigue: Development and evaluation of the three-dimensional work fatigue inventory (3D-WFI). Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(3), 273-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038700

Frone, M. R., Reis, D., & Ottenstein, C. (2018). A German version of the Three‐Dimensional Work Fatigue Inventory (3 D‐WFI): Factor structure, internal consistency, and correlates. Stress and Health, 34(5), 674-680. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2828

Frone, M. R., & Blais, A. R. (2019). Work fatigue in a non-deployed military setting: assessment, prevalence, predictors, and outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(16), 2892. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162892

Sfeir, E., Rabil, J. M., Obeid, S., Hallit, S., & Khalife, M. C. F. (2022). Work fatigue among Lebanese physicians and students during the COVID-19 pandemic: validation of the 3D-Work Fatigue Inventory (3D-WFI) and correlates. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12733-9