Linguistic and psychometric validation of Sinhala version of Menopause Specific Quality of Life questionnaire

Abstract Menopause Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) questionnaire assess the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of postmenopausal women (PMW). It includes 29 menopausal discomforts distributed among four main domains namely vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual. This study was aimed for linguistic validation of Sinhala version of MENQOL questionnaire and evaluation of its psychometric properties. Sinhala version of MENQOL questionnaire was adapted following standard methodology of cross-cultural adaptation; forward and backward translations, review by an expert group, focus group discussion and pre-testing. It was self-administered among 200 PMW aged 56.0±3.3 years, selected randomly from Galle, Sri Lanka along with the previously validated menopause rating scale (MRS). After two weeks from the previous administration, MENQOL questionnaire was administered again among a sub-group of PMW (n=100) selected from the 200 PMW. Then, the validity and reliability were evaluated. MENQOL questionnaire showed a high test retest reliability; intra class correlation=0.98 (0.97-0.99) and correlation coefficient=0.98 (<0.001). The global Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95 that indicates higher internal consistency. Seven factors with Eigen value exceeding 1, explaining 77.11% of cumulative variance was observed in Factor analysis with principal component analysis. It also showed more explanatory factor extraction. Strong significant positive correlation between MENQOL questionnaire score and the MRS score (r=0.78, p<0.001) was observed that confirms the criterion validity. We observed that the self-administered, 29 item, Sinhala version of MENQOL questionnaire is a valid, menopause specific tool with satisfactory psychometric properties. Therefore, it is recommended to measure menopausal discomforts and HRQOL of Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan PMW.