title: The development of two postnatal health instruments: one for mothers (M-PHI) and one for fathers (F-PHI) to measure health during the first year of parenting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and psychometrically evaluate two questionnaires measuring both positive and negative postnatal health of mothers (M-PHI) and fathers (F-PHI) during the first year of parenting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The M-PHI and the F-PHI were developed in four stages. Stage 1: Postnatal women's focus group (M-PHI) and postnatal fathers' postal questionnaire (F-PHI); Stage 2: Qualitative interviews; Stage 3: Pilot postal survey and main postal survey; and Stage 4: Test-retest postal survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The M-PHI consisted of a 29-item core questionnaire with six main scales and five conditional scales. The F-PHI consisted of a 27-item questionnaire with six main scales. All scales achieved good internal reliability (Cronbach's α 0.66-0.87 for M-PHI, 0.72-0.90 for F-PHI). Intraclass correlation coefficients demonstrated high test-retest reliability (0.60-0.88). Correlation coefficients supported the criterion validity of the M-PHI and the F-PHI when tested against the Short-Form-12 (SF-12), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Warwick and Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The M-PHI and F-PHI are valid, reliable, parent-generated instruments. These unique instruments will be invaluable for practitioners wishing to promote family-centred care and for trialists and other researchers requiring a validated instrument to measure both positive and negative health during the first postnatal year, as to date no such measurement has existed.
authors.affiliation: School of Health & Related Research, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield, S1 4DA, UK. g.l.jones@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Morrell
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Speier
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Anumba
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stewart-Brown
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting; D011181:Postnatal Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D006113:United Kingdom