Design and psychometric analysis of a climacteric adjustment questionnaire for middle-aged women

Abstract

Objective: The climacteric adjustment questionnaire (CAQ) was developed to assess the adjustment with fertility changes in middle-aged women. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the CAQ in a sample of Iranian middle-aged women. Method: This study used the impact item method and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to evaluate the psychometric properties and construct validity of the developed questionnaire. The primary questionnaire was developed based on a qualitative study. A principal componential analysis (34 items) with Varimax rotation was conducted in a cross-sectional study on 277 middle-aged women. Results: In the qualitative section, of the 34 items extracted, those with an impact item index of over 1.5, a content validity ratio of over 0.42, and a content validity index of over 0.79 were considered as valid. EFA reduced the list of the items to 32 with six factors capable of predicting 58 of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for CAQ was 0.863. Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicated that the validity and reliability of the questionnaire designed to measure the adjustment to the climacteric period in middle-aged women could be used in related studies.