Validity and Reliability of the Japanese Version of the Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) Tool for Couples Undergoing Fertility Treatment

Background: FertiQoL, which measures the Quality of Life (QOL) of reproductive partners, has been translated and used in 45 languages in the world. The reliability and validity of the original English version of FertiQoL have been confirmed. However, there is still no report on the reliability and validity of the Japanese version by a large-scale survey. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the FertiQoL scale for measuring the QOL of patients with reproductive problems. Methods: An unsigned self-filled questionnaire survey was conducted in patients undergoing infertility treatment at seven facilities in the Kanto area in Japan using the 34 items of the Japanese version of the FertiQoL scale. The study design was quantitative cross-sectional descriptive research. The investigation period was from April 2013 to April 2018. The contents of the investigation were attributes, FertiQoL scale, and distress scale. To determine the construct validity, principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis for each subscale were performed using SPSS Statistics Ver. 23.0 and AMOS Ver. 23.0. The study was performed after obtaining approval from the Research Ethics Review Committee of the responsible institutions to which the researchers belong as an ethical consideration. Results: The participants included 1201 patients undergoing infertility treatment and who provided valid responses. The Cronbach’s α was 0.92, and confirmatory factor analysis identified six domains with 34 items that showed the following values: goodness of fit index = 0.877, adjusted goodness of fit index = 0.855, comparative fit index = 0.893, and root mean square error of approximation = 0.059. The correlation coefficient was 0.669 (p < 0.001) with the distress scale. Conclusions: The Japanese version of FertiQoL showed adequate reliability and validity for assessing the QOL of patients with reproductive problems in Japan.