Epidemiology of prolapse and incontinence questionnaire: validation of a new epidemiologic survey

The epidemiology of prolapse and incontinence questionnaire (EPIQ) was developed to screen for female pelvic floor disorders (PFD). Content and face validity, reliability, internal consistency and criterion validity of the EPIQ to detect the presence of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), stress urinary incontinence (SUI), overactive bladder (OAB) and anal incontinence (AI) is presented. Cronbach's alpha; Spearman's, kappa, intraclass correlations, factor analysis and Chi-Squared tests were used for analysis. Questions related to PFD proved internally consistent (alpha = 0.91) and reproducible (correlations >0.70) for all but three items on the EPIQ. Positive and negative predictive values of the EPIQ to detect PFD were: POP = 76% and 97%, SUI = 88% and 87%, OAB = 77% and 90% and AI = 61% and 91% respectively. EPIQ is a psychometrically validated screening instrument that may identify women at high risk of having pelvic floor disorders in large undiagnosed populations.