Construction and validation of self-reporting menstrual disorder screening questionnaire for Indian population

Abstract

Dysmenorrhea is defined as difficulty in menstrual flow and refers to painful cramps during menstruation. There are 2 types of dysmenorrhea, primary and secondary dysmenorrhea respectively. Early diagnosis of these conditions which may be responsible for dysmenorrhea is necessary to curb the rising prevalence of infertility. There are no adequate screening questionnaires available for Indian population which can screen dysmenorrhea and differentiate primary and secondary dysmenorrhea.: The objective of phase-1 of this study comprised of constructing menstrual disorder screening questionnaire and content validating the questionnaire and the objective of phase-2 was to administer the developed questionnaire on the targeted population. This was a cross-sectional study in which a questionnaire was developed and content validated by experts. The expert panel was asked to validate each question on a four-point Likert scale for relevance, clarity, ease of comprehension and the question was represented in participants correct section. A pilot study was carried out on 31 participants. A total of 142 participants were participated in the study.Dysmenorrhea was reported by a total of 129 participants i.e. 90.85% whereas only 9.15% reported of having no pain during menstruation. Dysmenorrhea symptoms experienced only sometimes by 56 participants, but 73 participants reported to experience them with each cycle. The questionnaire developed, and content validated in this study can be used as a self-reporting screening tool to detect menstrual abnormalities in the Indian population