ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: One out of three women suffers from pelvic floor disorders. Thus, an instrument to evaluate this pathology in common clinical practice would be very useful. In this study the psychometric characteristics of the Spanish version of the US questionnaire "Epidemiology of Prolapse and Incontinence Questionnaire-EPIQ" have been evaluated, in order to test its equivalence to the original and allow for its use in Spain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 60 women with pelvic floor pathology and 60 control women filled in the Spanish version of the EPIQ. The questionnaire was validated following the statistical procedure used in the validation of the original form. RESULTS: Factibility: 113 women filled in all questionnaire items and 7 leaved some of them blank. VALIDITY: 7 dimensions were indentified: quality of life (QoL), overactive bladder (OAB), anal incontinence (AI), micturition difficulty/pain (MD/P), functional defecation disorders (FDD), stress urinary incontinence (SUI), and pelvic organ prolapse (POP). The validity of contents was proved comparing the mean scores for each dimension in patients and control (T-student test). Positive and negative predictive values were POP=92.3% and 82.52%; SUI= 54.34% and 84.93%; OAB=60.6% and 84.52% and AI=24.32% and 92.68%. Reliability: Global Cronbach's-alfa was 0.94 and for the different dimensions: 0.96 (QoL); 0.91 (OAB); 0.63 (AI); 0.72 (MD/P); 0.75 (FDD) and 0.61 (SUI). DISCUSSION: The Spanish version of the EPIQ questionnaire presents adequate factibility, validity and reliability to evaluate pelvic floor pathology in clinical practice.
