[Health-related quality of life in the Spanish women through and beyond menopause. Development and validation of the Cervantes Scale].
OBJECTIVE
There are numerous health-related quality of life questionnaires but only a few are specific for the menopause. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a specific scale, the Cervantes Scale, for menopause in Spanish women.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study included a pilot phase, construction of the questionnaire, validation, and test-retest reliability. A population-based sample of 2,274 women ponderated by age groups and education levels was used in the validation phase. Internal consistency was assessed with the Cronbach's alpha analysis.


RESULTS
The final questionnaire included 31 items ("menopause and health" with 15 items made up of vasomotor symptoms, health and aging, "sexuality" with 4 items, "couple relationship" with 3 items and "psychical domain" with 9 items). The Cronbach's (coefficient of the scale was 0.9092. The correlation coefficient of the test-retest was r=0.847 (p<.001). The Cervantes Scale is short, easy to administer (about 7 minutes), has a minimal score of 0 and a maximal score of 155 (from better to worse quality of life) and scores can be compared to reference values in younger women and women of the same age.


CONCLUSIONS
The Cervantes Scale is included in the new generation of instruments of health-related quality of life specific for the menopause and is intended to be used in Spanish women aged between 45 and 64 years.
Palacios
Santiago
S
Instituto Profesor Palacios, SL Madrid, España. ipalacios@institutopalacios.com
Ferrer-Barriendos
Javier
J
Parrilla
Juan José
JJ
Castelo-Branco
Camil
C
Manubens
Montserrat
M
Alberich
Xavier
X
Martí
Agustí
A
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires