Development and psychometric properties of a female specific questionnaire to measure quality of sexual life (QSL-F)

Authors: Raziyeh Maasoumi, Morteza Nazifie, Zahra Mokhtarnia

Abstract

Background: Quality of sexual life (QSL) is one of the main concepts in the field of sexual and reproductive health. The present study was conducted to develop and psychometric evaluation of a questionnaire in order to holistically assess quality of sexual life in women.

Methods: This was an exploratory mixed method investigation. Indeed, the study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, qualitative method (individual interview) were applied to generate items and develop the questionnaire. In the second phase, psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of the questionnaire were assessed. A total of 450 married Iranian women completed QSL-F as well as ENRICH couple scale, and sexual quality of life-female questionnaire (SQOL-F) to assess the criterion validity.

Results: Content validity index and content validity ratio for QSL-F were found to be .92 and .80, respectively. EFA identified six factors in QSL-F, which accounted for 67.96% of the variance. The identified six factors were also confirmed by CFA with acceptable goodness of fit indices. Correlations between the total scores of QSL-F and the dimensions of SQOL-F and ENRICH ranged from .414 to .747. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was found to be 0.94 to 0.60 for all subscales.

Conclusion: This study provided a valid and reliable questionnaire to holistically assess QSL in women. It will be useful as a self-reported measure in research and clinical practice of women’s sexual health.

Keywords: Sexual behavior, Psychometrics, Women, Iran