Development and validation of the Menopause-specific Quality of Life Scale for menopausal Thai women

ABSTRACT

Objectives To develop a new instrument, the Menopause-specific Quality of Life Scale (MS-QoLS), for Thai women and to study the experience of menopausal aspects in peri- and postmenopausal Thai women.

Materials and methods Item generation was developed from a focus group discussion and in-depth interview, and the content validity index (CVI) was computed, using item relevance ratings by content experts. Items with CVI values higher than 0.7 were selected. The draft questionnaire was tested for language, format and content. The final questionnaire was administered and the construct validity and reliability were then assessed.

Results Fifty-seven peri- and postmenopausal women participated in the focus group discussion and in-depth interview. Sixty-eight items across eight dimensions were generated based on content analysis result. The dimensions included Physical health, Psychological health, Sexual health, Daily activity, Family, Social, Treatment, and Economics. A total of 280 menopausal women were recruited from four collaborative hospitals for psychometric validation. After factor analysis, 22 items remained with six dimensions identified, that is, well-being, emotionality, anxiety/fear, family, social and sexual health. Cronbach's coefficient α of each domain was between 0.61 and 0.83.

Conclusion The Thai MS-QoLS was systematically developed and validated for peri- or postmenopausal women. The initial assessment of the questionnaire showed an acceptable level of validity and reliability.

Key words::

• Quality of life
• Menopause
• Questionnaire
• Thai
• Menopause-specific Quality of Life Scale

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Mrs Puangpaka Kongwattananon PhD (Faculty of Nursing, Thammasart University), Miss Pranee Pongrua PhD and Miss Tudsuang Poonyathalang PhD (Faculty of Nursing, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University) for their help in the conduct of the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews; Mrs Tanimporn Ninlagarn, Miss Somtawin Pojjanasopanakun, Miss Chongdee Dangrat, and Miss Wanna Seangjaroen for participant recruitment and questionnaire administration.

Conflict of interest The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.

Source of funding Menopause Research Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University.