Validating a shortened version of the Nordic safety climate questionnaire (NOSACQ) on a military population

• Civilian NOSACQ items misalign with military obedience and hierarchy norms. • NOSACQ-35 shows improved model fit and reliability over NOSACQ-50. • Shortened survey boosts usability, cuts time, and may improve data quality. • NOSACQ-7 enables fast screening with strong single-item reliability. • Military context normalizes risk, distorting how safety items are interpreted. The purpose of this study has been to develop a shortened version of NOSACQ-50 using previously collected military data. NOSACQ-50 has previously been tested and validated with data from the Swedish Armed Forces, published in three separate studies. The three sets of data from these previous studies were used for further testing. Classical test theory and item response theory were used to reduce the items included in the NOSACQ-50 questionnaire. The results indicate that the military population perceives safety differently, thus making items included in shorter versions of NOSACQ developed with civilian data, underperform with military data. The 50 items included in NOSACQ could be reduced to 35/34 items. There are several limitations to this study; one limitation is that the NOSACQ-35 questionnaire was only used within the existing NOSACQ-50 framework, making accuracy improvements impossible to detect. Further research should focus on an experimental design with a randomized experimental group using the NOSACQ-35 and a randomized control group using the NOSACQ-50 questionnaire. However, the NOSACQ-35 was tested within the full NOSACQ-50 framework, claims regarding improved usability and reliability should be interpreted with caution. Future research should evaluate the NOSACQ-35 as a standalone instrument.