Developing and validating a Taiwan version of the female sexual function index for pregnant women.

INTRODUCTION

Health professionals should pay more attention to the sexual concerns of pregnant women. An assessment instrument for female sexual function is needed for pregnant women in the Taiwanese population.

AIM

To translate the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) from English to traditional Chinese, and to evaluate the reliability and validity of this new version for pregnant women.

METHODS

Test-retest reliability of the newly developed Taiwan version of the FSFI for pregnant women was assessed in 55 pregnant women who completed this version of the questionnaire at two time points within 4 weeks. The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Taiwan version of the FSFI in a medical center in Taiwan were evaluated using a random sample of 121 pregnant women.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, Kappa statistics, McNemar's test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Construct validity was verified by factor analysis using the principal component option.

RESULTS

The Taiwan version of the FSFI showed adequate test-retest reliability for pregnant women. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the total score was 0.69, Kappa statistics showed good reproducibility for most items, and McNemar's test confirmed that there were no significant differences in the test-retest pair for the 19 items of the scale. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was excellent (Cronbach's [alpha] = 0.96). Three factors were identified with eigenvalues > or =1.03, explaining 87.10% of the total variance. The first, second, and third factors were "coitus,""satisfaction," and "desire", accounting for 72.32%, 9.37%, and 5.42% of the variance, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The results provided evidence of the validity and reliability of the Taiwan version of the FSFI for pregnant women. The questionnaire is a suitable instrument for measuring the sexual function of pregnant women and will be useful in research, teaching, and clinical practice.