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Comparative Study
. 2015 Jan-Feb;41(1):155-67.
doi: 10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2015.01.21.

Validation of Portuguese version of Quality of Erection Questionnaire (QEQ) and comparison to International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and RAND 36-Item Health Survey

Ana Luiza Reis  1 , Leonardo Oliveira Reis  1   2 , Ricardo Destro Saade  1 , Carlos Alberto Santos Jr  1 , Marcelo Lopes de Lima  1 , Adriano Fregonesi  1
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Validation of Portuguese version of Quality of Erection Questionnaire (QEQ) and comparison to International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and RAND 36-Item Health Survey

Ana Luiza Reis et al. Int Braz J Urol. 2015 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: To validate the Quality of Erection Questionnaire (QEQ) considering Brazilian social-cultural aspects.

Materials and methods: To determine equivalence between the Portuguese and the English QEQ versions, the Portuguese version was back-translated by two professors who are native English speakers. After language equivalence had been determined, urologists considered the QEQ Portuguese version suitable. Men with self-reported erectile dysfunction (ED) and infertile men who had a stable sexual relationship for at least 6 months were invited to answer the QEQ, the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and the RAND 36-Item Health Survey (RAND-36). The questionnaires were presented together and answered without help in a private room. Internal consistency (Cronbach's α), test-retest reliability (Spearman), convergent validity (Spearman correlation) coefficients and known-groups validity (the ability of the QEQ Portuguese version to differentiate erectile dysfunction severity groups) were assessed.

Results: We recruited 197 men (167 ED patients and 30 non-ED patients), mean age of 53.3 and median of 55.5 years (23-82 years). The Portuguese version of the QEQ had high internal consistency (Cronbach α=0.93), high stability between test and retest (ICC 0.83, with IC 95%: 0.76-0.88, p<0.001) and Spearman correlation coefficient r=0.82 (p<0.001), which demonstrated the high correlation between the QEQ and IIEF results. The correlations between the QEQ and RAND-36 were significantly low in ED (r=0.20, p=0.01) and non-ED patients (r=0.37, p=0.04).

Conclusion: The QEQ Portuguese version presented good psychometric properties and high convergent validity in relation to IIEF. The low correlations between the QEQ and the RAND-36, as well as between the IIEF and the RAND-36 indicated IIEF and QEQ specificity, which may have resulted from the patients' psychological adaptations that minimized the impact of ED on Quality of Life (QoL) and reestablished the well-being feeling.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Final version of the EQF in Portuguese
Figure 2
Figure 2. Study flow chart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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