title: Validation of Italian version of the Women's Health Questionnaire: assessment of quality of life of women from the general population and those attending menopause centers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Women's Health Questionnaire has been developed and validated in Anglo-Saxon and Swedish populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Italian version of the questionnaire to determine whether cross-cultural differences exist in the perception of quality of life, and to use it to compare the quality of life in women attending menopause centers with that of women in the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  An Italian version of the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) was produced, using the forward-backward translation method to ensure conceptual equivalence, and approved by the originator. Women were recruited by random selection from the general population and from menopause centers, those taking hormone replacement therapy being ineligible. The questionnaire was completed anonymously at home and mailed to the co-ordinating center. Psychometric evaluation included tests of item convergent and discriminant validity, internal-consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, construct validity and the discriminative properties of the questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The completeness of the data was good, with missing-value rates consistently low for most items. Item-scale correlations, used to evaluate internal consistency, were also good and the scaling success rate, used to measure item discriminant validity, was high for all scales. Scale scores were reliable for seven out of nine scales and test-retest reliability was excellent. There were few significant differences between the two populations of women in most of the WHQ areas. A comparison of Italian data with published data on English women showed great similarity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Italian version of the WHO is valid and reproducible. The subjective perception of the menopause and its related problems is similar in geographically and culturally different populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Medicine and Child Development, Section of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pisa, via Roma n. 67, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Genazzani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicolucci
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Campagnoli
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crosignani
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nappi
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Serra
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bottiglioni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cianci
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Aloysio
authors.forename: C Donati
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Sarti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gambacciani
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Monteleone
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciaponi
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Genazzani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guaschino
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Petraglia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schonauer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Volpe
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Coronel
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Di Paolantonio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tempesta
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008568:Memory; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012890:Sleep; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014666:Vasomotor System / Q000502:physiology; D016387:Women's Health