Climacteric symptoms and quality of life: validity of women's health questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Women's Health Questionnaire.


METHODS
In order to evaluate the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ), an analytical cross-sectional study was carried out at the women's menopause outpatient clinic of a university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. There were studied 87 women in perimenopause or menopause, defined as experiencing at least one year's absence of menstrual flow. The following variables were collected: demographic data, clinical variables (Kupperman index and correlate numeric scale) and quality of life indexes (SF-36 and utility).


RESULTS
The WHQ proved to be a questionnaire easily translated into Portuguese and well-adjusted to Brazilian women. The internal consistency of the overall WHQ was excellent (Cronbach alpha =0.83; 95% CI: 0.71-0.91). Test-retest reliability was also excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.92; 95% IC: 0.86-0.96) and had good absolute agreement (0.84; 95% CI: 0.71-0.92). A satisfactory clinical validity was observed. The construct validity was corroborated by clear associations with others scales. A good index of responsiveness after the intervention was reached.


CONCLUSIONS
The Portuguese version of the WHQ is of easy and fast administration and understanding. Its measuring properties were related, allowing its use in the evaluation of Brazilian climacteric women's quality of life for various purposes.
Departamento de Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina de Marília, Marília, SP, Brasil. silvacr@famema.br
Carlos Rodrigues da
CR
Silva Filho
Edmundo Chad
EC
Baracat
Lucieni de Oliveira
Lde O
Conterno
Mauro Abi
MA
Haidar
Marcos Bosi
MB
Ferraz
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D002979:Climacteric / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014175:Translating; D016387:Women's Health