Development, Validation and Reliability of Comprehensive Primary Dysmenorrhoea Scale: A Research Protocol

Abstract

Introduction: Primary Dysmenorrhoea (PD) is a common disorder in both young and adult females which is characterised by cramps that start immediately before or at the beginning of menstruation in the lower abdomen and are spasmodic and painful in nature, without any pelvic pathology. PD has a serious detrimental effect on quality of life and productivity in terms of health. Need of the Study: To the best of author’s knowledge, there is no specific scale meant to extensively assess the overall physical, social, psychological and nutritional status of females with PD and evaluate the quality of life, therefore, a comprehensive tool is required to resolve these issues and capture a comprehensive overview of the typical distress encountered during menstruation. Aim: To develop the items and domains, estimate its content and concurrent validity as well as assess intra-rater and test-retest reliability of the scale, which comprehensively assesses physical, social, psychological and nutritional status of females with PD and determine their quality of life. Materials and Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study, that will be conducted at General Outpatient Department (OPD), Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Maharishi Markandeshwar Deemed to be University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India from April 2023 to March 2024. It consists of three phases. First phase comprises of the scale development procedure which includes generation of domains and items. Second phase is to validate the scale. This phase includes content validation through Delphi method as well as evaluation of criterion (concurrent) validity. Third phase consists of assessing intra-rater and test-retest reliability of the scale.

Keywords

• delphi method
• menstruation
• nutritional status
• quality of life
• test-retest reliability