Validation of Italian version of the Women's Health Questionnaire: assessment of quality of life of women from the general population and those attending menopause centers.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
The Women's Health Questionnaire has been developed and validated in Anglo-Saxon and Swedish populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Italian version of the questionnaire to determine whether cross-cultural differences exist in the perception of quality of life, and to use it to compare the quality of life in women attending menopause centers with that of women in the general population.

METHODS:
An Italian version of the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) was produced, using the forward-backward translation method to ensure conceptual equivalence, and approved by the originator. Women were recruited by random selection from the general population and from menopause centers, those taking hormone replacement therapy being ineligible. The questionnaire was completed anonymously at home and mailed to the co-ordinating center. Psychometric evaluation included tests of item convergent and discriminant validity, internal-consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, construct validity and the discriminative properties of the questionnaire.

RESULTS:
The completeness of the data was good, with missing-value rates consistently low for most items. Item-scale correlations, used to evaluate internal consistency, were also good and the scaling success rate, used to measure item discriminant validity, was high for all scales. Scale scores were reliable for seven out of nine scales and test-retest reliability was excellent. There were few significant differences between the two populations of women in most of the WHQ areas. A comparison of Italian data with published data on English women showed great similarity.

CONCLUSION:
The Italian version of the WHO is valid and reproducible. The subjective perception of the menopause and its related problems is similar in geographically and culturally different populations.

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Author information

Author/s: Genazzani, A R (AR); Nicolucci, A (A); Campagnoli, C (C); Crosignani, P (P); Nappi, C (C); Serra, G B (GB); Bottiglioni, E (E); Cianci, A (A); De Aloysio, D (D); Sarti, C Donati (CD); Gambacciani, M (M); Monteleone, P (P); Ciaponi, M (M); Genazzani, A D (AD); Guaschino, S (S); Palumbo, G (G); Petraglia, F (F); Schonauer, S (S); Volpe, A (A); Coronel, G A (GA); Di Paolantonio, T (T); Nagni, M (M); Tempesta, A (A); Progetto Donna Qualità della Vita Working Group Novo Nordisk Italia;

Affiliation: Department of Reproductive Medicine and Child Development, Section of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pisa, via Roma n. 67, 56126 Pisa, Italy.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Validation Studies

Journal: Climacteric : the journal of the International Menopause Society (Climacteric), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Mar; vol 5 (issue 1) : pp 70-7

Dates: Created 2002/04/26; Completed 2002/10/04; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11974561, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Affect
Aged
Female
Humans
Italy
Memory
Menopause
Middle Aged

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