title: The Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ): a psychometric evaluation of the 36-item Norwegian version.
abstract: The Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) was designed specifically to study possible changes that occur during menopause. The purpose of this study was to perform a psychometric evaluation of the Norwegian version of the WHQ by examining the factor structure and construct validity of the instrument. Data used for the evaluation were collected at baseline of the ACUFLASH study, a randomized, controlled clinical trial that evaluated the effect of acupuncture treatment on menopausal symptoms. Altogether, 267 women with a very high frequency of hot flushes were included in the study. Some deficiencies in the WHQ questionnaire were observed when applied to this sample, including an unclear factor structure, low alpha values for some dimensions, and a strong floor effect in the vasomotor symptoms dimension. The total scale score appears reliable, but care should be taken when interpreting some of the subscales.
authors.affiliation: The National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway. einar.borud@fagmed.uit.no
authors.forename: Einar Kristian
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Borud
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinussen
authors.forename: Anne Elise
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Eggen
authors.forename: Sameline
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grimsgaard
mesh_terms: D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D019584:Hot Flashes; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D016387:Women's Health