Measurement properties of occupational health and safety management audits: a systematic literature search and traditional literature synthesis.

OBJECTIVE The measurement properties of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management audits might be important in some applications, especially when audit scores are treated as performance measures. The review, therefore, sought to identify and summarize the research evidence on the measurement properties (e.g., reliability, validity) of methods of OHS management audit. METHODS Bibliographic databases in business, medicine and OHS were systematically searched. Evidence from relevant publications was synthesized using traditional narrative review methods. SYNTHESIS The literature on the measurement properties of OHS management audit methods is sparse. Seventeen relevant audit methods were identified. Content validity was demonstrated for only five audit methods. Inter-rater reliability was formally tested for only three audit methods and construct validity for only one. There were no studies of test-retest reliability or responsiveness. The investigations of inter-rater reliability (i.e., consistency among auditors) showed that it is often unacceptably low. CONCLUSION There is a research gap concerning the measurement properties of OHS management audit methods. The available research raises questions about the properties of audit methods in current use.