Development and psychometric properties of Iranian Women’s Quality of Life Instrument (IWQOLI): Mixed Exploratory Study

Abstract

Abstract Background: Half of Iran’s population is made up of women and their decisive role in the family is undeniable so their health should be prioritized. In order to determine the health needs and promote women's health, their quality of life should be investigated. For this purpose, a valid tool is needed, which has credible validity and reliability, and its concepts are clearly defined and culturally appropriate. Methods: This is a sequential exploratory mixed-method research carried out in accordance with the Creswell method in three phases from May 2016 to January 2018 in Tehran. 1- qualitative phase in order to identify the key concept, 2- development of tools with the extraction of items, 3- Determine the psychometric properties of the tool. Results: Initially, from exploratory analyses (interviewing 40 women), a total of 150 items were extracted. After performing the face and content validity, 32 items were deleted. S-CVI/Ave was obtained for the instrument (0.93). The factor structure of the inventory was identified by undertaking a principal component analysis in a sample of 590 women. Five factors were extracted with a total variance account of 56.24% and 28 items dropped at this point. The Iranian women’s Quality of Life Instrument (IWQOLI) score was significantly correlated with the SF-36 (r = 0.717, p < 0.001). Reliability was demonstrated with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.919 for the entire scale (90-item). Consistency of the instrument was established with test-retest reliability with an interval of 2 weeks (intra-cluster correlation = 0.889, P < 0.001). Conclusions: The Iranian women’s Quality of lifeInstrument “IWQOLI”, consisting of 90 items representing 5 domains (sense of peace in life, sense of security, health responsibility, pleasant communication, received comprehensive support), demonstrated excellent psychometric properties, so it may be used for measuring women’s QOL in practical research.