Climacteric symptoms and quality of life: validity of women's health questionnaire

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Women's Health Questionnaire. Methods In order to evaluate the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ), an analytical crosssectional study was carried out at the women's menopause outpatient clinic of a university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. There were studied 87 women in perimenopause or menopause, defined as experiencing at least one year's absence of menstrual flow. The following variables were collected: demographic data, clinical variables (Kupperman index and correlate numeric scale) and quality of life indexes (SF-36 and utility). ResultsThe WHQ proved to be a questionnaire easily translated into Portuguese and welladjusted to Brazilian women. The internal consistency of the overall WHQ was excellent (Cronbach alpha =0.83; 95% CI: 0.71-0.91). Test-retest reliability was also excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.92; 95% IC: 0.86-0.96) and had good absolute agreement (0.84; 95% CI: 0.71-0.92). A satisfactory clinical validity was observed. The construct validity was corroborated by clear associations with others scales. A good index of responsiveness after the intervention was reached. ConclusionsThe Portuguese version of the WHQ is of easy and fast administration and understanding. Its measuring properties were related, allowing its use in the evaluation of Brazilian climacteric women's quality of life for various purposes.

Tradução, adaptação e validação da versão brasileira do questionário Utian Quality of Life para avaliação da qualidade de vida no climatério

“…Entretanto, sua aplicação deve ser feita em associação com escalas de mensuração de sintomas climatéricos 1,20 , uma vez que o UQOL não é válido para essa finalidade específica.…”

Efeitos das isoflavonas sobre o assoalho pélvico e a vascularização peri-uretral de mulheres na pós-menopausa

“…Representa o climatério o período da vida em que a mulher sofre modifi cações regressivas decorrentes da redução dos hormônios sexuais, principalmente os estrogênios produzidos pelos ovários 16 . Entre elas destacam-se as alterações do assoalho pélvico 13,14 .…”

Violência doméstica e sexual em mulheres e suas repercussões na fase do climatério

“…The issue seldom surfaces in diagnostics and in conducts carried out in health services due to the difficulty of the actors in expressing the experienced violence and limitations on the part of the health team in providing the adequate health assistance to the integral women's health, especially in the climacteric phase , among other reasons [1][2][3][4] . Domestic violence and particularly sexual violence can lead to a greater occurrence of several physical, reproductive and mental health problems, and also leads to greater use of the various health services by women.…”

“…Domestic violence and particularly sexual violence can lead to a greater occurrence of several physical, reproductive and mental health problems, and also leads to greater use of the various health services by women. 1,5,6,7 Although existing research 8,9,10 has contributed to improving the quality of the investigation of the violence suffered by women, many instruments are still limited by a variety of methodological shortcomings 1,4,5,7,11 . Such probing tools concerning violence suffered in childhood/ adolescence ignore the dimensional features of traumatic events 12,13 .…”