A short-form questionnaire identified genital organ prolapse

We constructed a simple questionnaire that, with a minimum of questions, could accurately and reliably identify women with genital organ prolapse.

Two hundred women with confirmed genital organ prolapse and 199 outpatients with various gynecologic symptoms but no objective prolapse answered 13 questions perceived to be valuable for the diagnosis. With stepwise backward logistic regression, the discriminatory ability of a successively abbreviated set of questions was assessed. The resulting short questionnaire was tested in a new population-based sample of 282 women participating in a screening survey.

A final five-item questionnaire retained 94% of the predictive value of all 13 questions and had 92.5% sensitivity and 94.5% specificity in the first group of women. When the questionnaire was used in the subsequent population-based survey, the sensitivity and specificity values were 66.5% and 94.2%, respectively. Most missed cases had stage I prolapse.

Although the sensitivity of the test was moderate, the specificity, and hence the ability to rule in cases, was satisfactory. The test is suitable for case finding in epidemiologic studies.