An interviewer-administered validated female pelvic floor questionnaire for community-based research.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to design and validate an interviewer-administered pelvic floor questionnaire suitable for community-dwelling women to assess female bladder, bowel, and sexual function; pelvic organ prolapse; and condition-specific quality-of-life issues.

DESIGN: The questionnaire was developed and administered during interviews of 493 community-dwelling women aged 40 to 79 years originally recruited from an age-stratified random sample from the electoral roll who were involved in a longitudinal study of aging in women. Full psychometric testing was performed. To assess discriminant validity, 55 consecutive patients attending a tertiary referral urogynecology clinic served as a comparison group.

RESULTS: Face validity: The interviewer-administered questionnaire was easily administered and missing data did not exceed 2%. Discriminant validity: The questionnaire clearly discriminated the community population from the urogynecology patients in all pelvic floor domains. Convergent validity: The bladder function domain score correlated with the validated short version of the Urogenital Distress Inventory score. Bowel function scores correlated highly with corresponding items in an established bowel questionnaire. Prolapse symptoms correlated significantly with the pelvic organ prolapse quantification. Sexual function score (n = 257) correlated with the validated McCoy Female Sexuality Questionnaire score. Reliability: Cronbach's alpha for the bladder, bowel, prolapse, and sexual function domains was adequate (alpha >or= 0.7). Kappa values in the test-retest analyses varied between 0.63 and 1.0 (test-retest reproducibility).

CONCLUSIONS: The interviewer-administered questionnaire assesses all aspects of pelvic floor function including condition-specific quality-of-life issues in a reliable and valid fashion. It is suitable for researchers investigating pelvic floor function.