Introduction Job-exposure matrixes (JEM) approaches have been recently developed on physical workload in US, Denmark and France. A comparison between US and Danish JEMs revealed substantial reliability and concordance. We aimed to describe correlation between French, US and Danish JEMs, in order to confirm that some variable of physical workload JEMs may be internationally generalizable.

Methods US ”O*NET” variables, two Danish expert based JEMs (Lower Body and Shoulder), were compared to variables of ”MADE”, French expert based JEM. The Danish JEMs were based on occupational titles in the Danish version of the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO88). Exposure estimates for Danish ISCO88 codes had been connected to ”O*NET” exposure estimates through ISCO08 and Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes. ”MADE” is available on French coding system (PCS03) and ISC08. Crosswalk from ISCO08 to SOC and Danish ISCO 88 has been performed, to allow building a matrix of correlations based on Pearson correlation coefficients.

Results The cross-walk included 337 Danish ISCO 88 common used codes for upper extremity and 372 for lower upper extremity, O*Net, more than 800 occupational titles and ”MADE JEM” 673 ISCO08 codes. Information was unique for 379 for ”MADE”-”O*NET” couples, 333 for ”MADE”-upper Danish JEM, and 165 for ”MADE”-lower Danish JEM. Correlation of relevant variables found good associations (rho >0.7) for force, computer work, and kneeling, fair for repetitiveness and vibrations (rho 0.5–0.6). Handling loads was heterogeneous.

Conclusion These results seem to confirm the possibility of international job-exposure matrixes on physical workload.