Quality of life with pregnancy outcomes: Further evaluating item properties for refined Taiwan's FertiQoL

Abstract

Purpose: We assessed the reliability and validity of Taiwan's version of FertiQoL, with a focus on the association between quality of life (QoL) and in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) pregnancy. Methods: 410 women undergoing IVF treatment were included. QoL measured by Taiwan's version of FertiQoL was assessed before embryo transfer. Item properties were examined using corrected item–total correlation, Rasch mean-square (MnSq), and internal consistency. Known-group validity was assessed using IVF pregnancy (i.e., chemical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, live birth) as the outcomes of interest. Results: Five FertiQoL items, namely Q4, Q5, Q15, Q21, and T5, had low corrected item–total correlation (i.e., −0.146–0.290) in their embedded domains; three other items, namely Q11, Q14, and T2, did not have acceptable MnSq values in the Rasch analysis (i.e., infit MnSq: 1.31–2.28; outfit MnSq: 1.95–4.57). These items were removed and a refined Taiwan's FertiQoL was generated. The internal consistency for the refined Taiwan's FertiQoL was improved (α = 0.928) with the capability of distinguishing women who had successful live birth from those who had failed live birth (i.e., 72.40 ± 12.71vs. 69.21 ± 13.26; p = 0.019). Conclusion: The study results demonstrate that the refined Taiwan's FertiQoL is valid and reliable, suggesting that this FertiQoL should refined to be culturally and language appropriate for Taiwanese population.

Keywords

• In-vitro-fertilization
• Quality of life
• FertiQoL
• Pregnancy
• Instrumental study