Translation and Psychometric Validation of Women Health Questionnaire (WHQ) in Persian Language

Abstract

Menopause is not a disease; however the somatic and psychological symptoms that accompany it affect the life of women. Women health questionnaire (WHQ) is a self-administered questionnaire that measures the physical and mental health of women ages 40 to 65 years. The purpose of this study is to provide psychometric documentation details of the translation of WHQ into the Persian language. A total of 350 peri and postmenopausal women were recruited from urban health centers in the city of Tabriz, between March and October 2015. The validity of WHQ was assessed using construct and discriminate validity. The reliability of questionnaire was assessed by test retest reliability and measuring internal consistency. The KMO was 0.791, and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity was significant. Principle component analysis (PCA) resulted in 9 factors which explained up to 55.4% of the total variance. Cronbach's coefficient was 0.799 and the Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the Persian translation scale was 0.712. Evaluation of the psychometric properties showed that the Persian language translation of the 36-item version of the WHQ was appropriate when applied to middle aged women.