Validation of the adolescent menstrual poverty questionnaire

Menstrual poverty is the inability to obtain menstrual products due to financial, social, cultural, and political barriers to accessing menstrual products. It affects 65% of adolescents in Nova Scotia, but its impact on adolescents in Canada remains unknown. The adolescent Menstrual Poverty Questionnaire (aMPQ) was designed to assess the impact of menstrual poverty on adolescents living in countries with higher socioeconomic status. This study aims to translate the aMPQ into French and to validate it in both English and French to facilitate nationwide use.

The aMPQ was translated to French using forward translation by a professional translation service, then backward translation by a bilingual investigator. English and French speaking physicians specialized in adolescence care were recruited to participate in content validity assessment of the English and French aMPQs by completing a web-based survey containing rating scales from 1 to 4 on both clarity and relevance for each of the 27 items of the aMPQ. The Content Validity Index (CVI) for each Item (I-CVI) and for the general Scale (S-CVI) were calculated. An I-CVI of 0.78 or higher and an S-CVI of 0.90 or higher supports content validity.

Twelve physicians completed content validity surveys for the English and French aMPQ. Each question on the aMPQ had an I-CVI above 0.78 for both relevance and clarity. The S-CVI was 0.98.

Content validity of the aMPQ in both English and French was established. The aMPQ is a valid bilingual tool and can be used for nationwide assessment of the impact of menstrual poverty on adolescents.