Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Aim: Urinary incontinence has a negative effect on physical, social, psychological and occupational aspects of health in women. The aim of current study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Persian version of urinary incontinence quality of life instrument (I-QOL) in order to determine quality of life in women with urinary incontinence and to promote the quality of medical cares and services.

Patients and Method: Through studying evaluative diagnostic procedures and in order to assess the validity and reliability, I-QOL, psychological general well-being (PGWB) and Persian version of SF-36 questionnaires were offered to 373 eligible women with stress, mixed and urge urinary incontinence who were referred to educational hospitals of medical universities of Iran,, Hamedan, and Lorestan during six months. In order to measure the reliability, translated I-QOL questionnaires were completed by the patients 3 weeks later in the same clinics. We used Pearson correlation analysis, Cronbach’s-alpha, confirmatory factor analysis, and intraclass correlation coefficient to assess the validity and reliability of
I-QOL questionnaire.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed structural validity of I-QOL. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s-alpha) was 0.96. The range of internal consistency was between 0.78 and 0.93 for domains of I-QOL questionnaire. Reproducibility by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.96. The correlation between total I-QOL and the subscales of PGWB and SF36 ranged from 0.53 to 0. 61 and 0.47 to 0.59 respectively. I-QOL scores were found to be more closely related to well-being of PGWB (r=0.6) and social function of SF36 (r= 0.55).

Conclusion: The obtained results showed I-QOL questionnaire has good reliability, validity and internal consistency for Iranian patients.