Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct 23;12(10):e0185433.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185433. eCollection 2017.

Validation of a pregnancy planning measure for Arabic-speaking women

Eman Almaghaslah  1   2 , Roger Rochat  2 , Ghada Farhat  2
Affiliations

Validation of a pregnancy planning measure for Arabic-speaking women

Eman Almaghaslah et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy in Saudi Arabia has not been thoroughly investigated.

Objective: To conduct a psychometric evaluation study of the Arabic version of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP).

Methods: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the LMUP, we conducted a self-administered online survey among 796 ever-married Saudi women aged 20-49 years, and a re-test survey among 24 women. The psychometric properties evaluated included content validity measured by content validity index (CVI), structural validity assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), substantive validity assessed by hypothesis testing, contextual stability for the test-retest assessed by weighted Kappa, and internal consistency assessed by Cronbach's alpha.

Results: The psychometric analysis of the Arabic version of LMUP exhibited valid and reliable properties. The CVIs for individual items and at the scale level were >0.7. EFA confirmed a unidimensional extraction of the scale item. Hypothesis testing confirmed expected associations. The tool was stable with weighted kappa = 0.78 and Cronbach's alpha = 0.88.

Conclusion and recommendations: In this study, the validity and reliability of the Arabic version of the LMUP were confirmed according to well-known psychometric criteria. This LMUP version can be used in research studies among Arabic-speaking women to measure unplanned pregnancy and investigate correlates and outcomes related to unplanned pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Pathways* for the impact of unplanned pregnancy on maternal and newborn outcomes *[9] → established correlations from previous literature by previous survey tools.
---The need for validation of the pregnancy planning measure to establish the relationships.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Participant flow chart.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Distribution of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) score for ever-married Saudi women.
LMUP score. 0 unplanned pregnancy, 12 planned pregnancy.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Distribution of London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) score of Saudi women parity.
0 parity consisted of women who are had no prior born child, and/or currently pregnant with the first one.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Farzaneh R, Ahmed Abdul M, editors. Unintended Pregnancies in the Middle East and North Africa. IUSSP International Population Conference; 2009 2009/09/29/. Marrakech.
    1. Finer LB, Zolna MR. Unintended pregnancy in the United States: Incidence and disparities, 2006. Contraception. 2011;84(5):478–85. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2011.07.013 PubMed PMID: PMC3338192. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klerman LV. The Intendedness of Pregnancy: A Concept in Transition. Matern Child Health J. 2000;4(3):155–62. doi: 10.1023/A:1009534612388 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wellings K, Jones KG, Mercer CH, Tanton C, Clifton S, Datta J, et al. The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy and associated factors in Britain: findings from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3). Lancet. 2013;382(9907):1807–16. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62071-1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. UNFP. Family Planning—United Nations Population Division | Department of Economic and Social Affairs; 2017.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources