A new instrument to measure sexual function in women with urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse

Abstract

Objective: Our aim was to develop a condition-specific, reliable, validated, and self-administered instrument to evaluate sexual function in women with pelvic organ prolapse or urinary incontinence.

Study design: The questionnaire was designed after review of the literature and of nonspecific validated instruments. The study was completed in 2 phases. In phase 1 a total of 83 women completed both our questionnaire and the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, with 20 women undergoing test-retest reliability analyses. Item analysis was based on the internal consistency, the correlations with the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, the patient's age and self-rating of satisfaction, and the results of reliability testing. For final validation the questionnaire was administered in phase 2 to 99 women. Factor and item analyses were repeated, results were correlated with the Sexual History Form-12, and comparison was made between patients with high depression scores and those with low depression scores on the Symptom Questionnaire.

Results: Factor analysis identified 3 domains, labeled Behavioral/Emotive, Physical, and Partner-Related. Sexual function scores were highly correlated with scores on the Sexual History Form-12 for the questionnaire (r = -0.74; P <.001) and for both the Behavioral/Emotive and the Partner-Related domains (r = -0.79 and -0.5, respectively; P <.001). The Physical domain was correlated with scores on the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (r = -0.63; P <.001). Women with high depression scores on the Symptom Questionnaire had significantly lower scores on the final questionnaire, in comparison with women without depression (P <.001).

Conclusion: We developed a condition-specific, validated, and reliable instrument, containing 31 items divided into 3 domains, to evaluate sexual functioning in women with urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse.