Cent Eur J Nurs Midw 2014, 5(1):36-45

Menopause rating scale - validation Czech version specific instrument for assessing health-related quality of life in postmenopausal women

Markéta Moravcová1,*, Jiří Mareš2, Stanislav Ježek3
1 Department of Midwifery and Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic
2 Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

Aim: The aim of the present study was to create a Czech version of the Menopause Rating Scale questionnaire, to validate its psychometric properties and to assess its applicability in the Czech clinical practice. Menopause Rating Scale enables to assess the quality of life in postmenopausal women from women's perspective and is applied worldwide in gynaecological clinical practice.

Methods: A Czech version of the Menopause Rating Scale was created by repeated and backward translation. It was validated on a sample of 204 women after natural menopause (49 - 63 years). We judged the reliability of the Czech version of Menopause Rating Scale using Cronbach's alpha. We assessed the instrument's validity by means of confirmation factor analysis and Pearson's correlation coefficient. To assess the applicability, we used feedback from respondents, verbal protocols and questionnaire evaluation by healthcare professionals.

Results: Internal consistency of the questionnaire is confirmed by Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Although the internal structure of the Menopause Rating Scale is not totally clear, for practical application, in the Czech version we maintained the structure of three areas corresponding with the original version. Criterion validity has been confirmed. Correlations between Menopause Rating Scale and generic SF-36 are high - both instruments are measured by the same components. Menopause Rating Scale is - both from postmenopausal women's and from healthcare professionals' perspective - assessed as a practical method, applicable within routine clinical examination of postmenopausal women.

Conclusion: We created a Czech standardized version of the Menopause Rating Scale, practicable for informative assessment of the quality of life in postmenopausal women. The questionnaire also provides the opportunity to evaluate the spectre of menopausal symptoms, their intensity and the potential effect of treatment. It is a brief screening-type questionnaire, composing of 11 items and evaluating the quality of life in three areas.

Keywords: diagnostics, health-related quality of life, HRQL, menopause, Menopause Rating Scale, evaluation methods

Received: January 16, 2014; Accepted: February 18, 2014; Published: March 30, 2014  Show citation

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Moravcová M, Mareš J, Ježek S. Menopause rating scale - validation Czech version specific instrument for assessing health-related quality of life in postmenopausal women. Central European Journal of Nursing and Midwifery. 2014;5(1):36-45.
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