WHODAS measurement properties for women with dysmenorrhea

There is an association of dysmenorrhea with human functioning and disability. However, no patient-reported outcome measure has been developed to assess this construct in women with dysmenorrhea. WHODAS 2.0 has been recognized as an important generic patient-reported outcome information of physical function and disability. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the measurement properties of the WHODAS 2.0 in women with dysmenorrhea.

This is an online and cross-sectional study conducted with Brazilian women aged 14 to 42 years with self-report of dysmenorrhea in the last three months. According to COSMIN, structural validity was evaluated by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis; internal consistency by Cronbach's Alpha; measurement invariance by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis between geographic regions of Brazil; and construct validity by correlating WHODAS 2.0 to the Numerical Rating Scale for pain severity.

One thousand three hundred and eighty-seven women (24.7 ± 6.5 years) with dysmenorrhea participated in the study. WHODAS 2.0 presented a single factor by exploratory factor analysis and adequate model by confirmatory factor analysis (CFI = 0.924, TLI = 0.900, RMSEA = 0.038), excellent internal consistence (α = 0.892) for all items and an invariancy across geographic regions (ΔCFI ≤ 0.01 and ΔRMSEA < 0.015). Correlation between WHODAS 2.0 and numerical rating scale was positive and moderate (r = 0.337).

WHODAS 2.0 has a valid structure to assess functioning and disability related to dysmenorrhea in women.