Development of a Reliable and Valid Questionnaire to Identify Factors Affecting Health of Postmenopausal Women in Selected Areas of Gurugram, India

Abstract

Introduction: Postmenopause is the period when a woman misses her menstrual cycles for the entire year. A host of issues involving health, fitness and psychological problems come up in this phase which effect quality of a life of a woman significantly therefore a substantial degree of care is needed for them. There are various factors that affect the physical and psychological health of postmenopausal women. Aim: To develop a self-structured questionnaire that would identify and address various factors that affect health of postmenopausal women in Gurugram India. Materials and Methods: A thorough literature search related to the subject matter was done along with the interview of researchers working on the health status of postmenopausal women to arrive at a questionnaire, and a pilot study was conducted on 60 postmenopausal women (average age 52±3.44 years) from September 2019 to March 2020. Expert opinion was taken twice before preparing first draft of questionnaire. Questionnaire had 4 sections with questions related to demographic details, medical history, physical activity status and psychological health status. The scores were evaluated and subjected to reliability and validity tests. SPSS software version 20 was used to calculate Cronbach’s alpha value for ensuring reliability of the questionnaire. Results: The questionnaire possesses good content and face validity. Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.772 which indicated acceptable degree of correlation between different items of questionnaire. The final questionnaire consists of 24 questions. Numerical coding of responses was done from 0-2. A score of 0-10, 11-20 and >21 indicated mild, moderate and severe effect respectively on health of postmenopausal women. Conclusion: The questionnaire can be utilised to evaluate factors affecting physical and mental health issues of postmenopausal women.

Keywords

• fitness
• mental health
• noncommunicable diseases
• vasomotor symptoms