Psychometric validation of the Women's Health Questionnaire in menopausal women

The objective of this study was to adapt the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) to women who speak Turkish and are from the Turkish culture, and to assess the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale. A convenience sample of women undergoing the menopausal transition or in the postmenopausal period was recruited at one primary health care center in Erzurum, Turkey. The researchers selected consecutive women who applied to the center for health care services. Three hundred sixty-six women were asked to participate in the study and to complete the WHQ during their appointment at the health care center in 2010. In the assessment of construct validity, nine factors were identified: depressed mood; menstrual symptoms; somatic symptoms; anxiety/fears; attractiveness; sexual behaviour; vasomotor symptoms; memory; and sleep problems. The nine factors explained 56.5% of the total variance. The overall internal reliability coefficient of this scale was 0.80. Evidence of the validity, reliability, and acceptability of the questionnaire was provided in this study. The Turkish version of the questionnaire is easy to understand and allows evaluation of women's quality of life for various purposes.