Validity and Reliability of the Korean Version of the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL). @*Methods@#The MENQOL was translated into Korean according to algorithm of linguistic validation process. A total of 308 menopausal womenwere recruited and assessed using the Korean version of MENQOL (MENQOL-K), the World Health Organization Quality of Life BriefVersion (WHOQOL-BREF), and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-K). In estimating reliability, internal consistencyreliability coefficients were calculated. Validity was evaluated through criterion validity and construct validity with confirmatory factor analysesusing SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 25.0 software. @*Results@#In item analyses, the “increased facial hair” symptom was excluded because of thelow contribution of MENQOL-K. The confirmatory factor analysis supported good fit and reliable scores for MENQOL-K model, and thefour-factor structure was validated (x2=553.28, p <.001, NC=1.84, RMSEA=.05, AGIF=.85, AIC=765.28). The MENQOL-K consists of 28 itemsin 4 domains, including vasomotor (3 items), psychosocial (7 items), physical (15 items), and sexual subscales (3 items). There was an acceptablecriterion validity with moderately significant correlation between MENQOL-K and WHOQOL-BREF. The Cronbach’s a for the 4subsacles ranged from .80 to .93. @*Conclusion@#The MENQOL-K is a valid and reliable scale to measure condition-specific quality of life forperimenopausal and postmenopausal women. It can be used to assess the impact of menopausal symptoms on the quality of life of Koreanwomen in clinical trials.