Validation of the "international consultation on incontinence questionnaire urinary incontinence quality of life".

Objective: To Validate the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Quality of Life for the Portuguese population. Urinary incontinence is a highly prevalent condition with a negative impact on people's quality of life. The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Quality of Life was adapted in order to have a standardized structure that allows the assessment of the impact of urinary incontinence on quality of life.

Method: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out with two hundred and twenty participants recruited at the Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho and at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João during the period from September 2019 to January 2020. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed. For internal consistency, the standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated. In order to obtain construct validity, an exploratory factor analysis was performed using varimax rotation to extract the main components.

Results: The Portuguese version of the questionnaire has 21 items distributed by the three factors found, maintaining the items proposed in the original version. The result of standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficient, α=0.906 overall, confirms the internal consistency of the Portuguese version of the instrument. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed between each item and the item assessing the impact on quality of life in the form of a scale, verifying a positive correlation in all items.

Conclusions: The Portuguese version of the questionnaire proved to be reliable and valid in the study carried out for clinical and research use.