title: Psychometric Properties of the Iranian Version of a Postpartum Women's Quality of Life Questionnaire (PQOL): A Methodological Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are some specific measures for the evaluation of postpartum quality of life, and each have some limitations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the validity and reliability of the Persian version of a postpartum women's quality of life (PQOL) questionnaire at the eighth week of postpartum.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a methodological research, and subjects were 500 women, ages 18 - 42, eight weeks postpartum, randomly selected from half of the public centers in Tabriz, Iran, who completed questionnaires in a self-administered manner. Data was collected during a two-month period during 2014 - 2015. A standard forward - backward translation procedure was used to translate the English version of the PQOL into Persian. Content, construct, discriminant, and criterion validity was assessed. The reliability was evaluated by internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PQOL showed good content validity; content validity ratio (CVR) ranged from 0.67 to 1.00 and content validity index (CVI) ranged from 0.78 to 1.00. Construct validity evaluation by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) led to extraction of six factors from the data. Due to the lack of theoretical justification for items' relocation in the extracted factors and poor-fitting indices obtained by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the exploratory model was eliminated, and the original model was presented and incorporated into the CFA, indicating an acceptable fit for the model (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.038 [0.034; 0.042]; comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.90; normed fit index [NFI] = 0.80; non-normed fit index [NNFI] = 0.90; incremental fit index [IFI] = 0.90). The intergroup differences in total and all dimensions of the PQOL, except for social support, indicated the discrimination ability of the questionnaire. The questionnaire indicated a medium correlation with the short form health survey (SF-12) questionnaire (r ≥ 0.50). Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.70 - 0.88) indicated a good internal consistency, and the intraclass correlation coefficients (0.87 - 0.92) showed good test - retest reliability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this study confirmed the validity and reliability of the Iranian version of the PQOL questionnaire in Iranian women as a specific measure to evaluate the women's quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Students Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nikan
authors.affiliation: Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Faculty of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asghari Jafarabadi
authors.affiliation: Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Sakineh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirghafourvand
authors.affiliation: Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology, Institute for Health Sciences Research, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Montazeri
authors.affiliation: Students Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asadi
keywords: Postpartum Women; Quality of Life; Reliability; Validity