Adaptation to Collao Quechua and psychometric analysis of the instrument for detecting violence against women.

BACKGROUND

Motivation for the study: Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem, with higher prevalence in indigenous communities. Therefore, it is essential to have culturally and linguistically appropriate tools that allow for early screening of this form of violence among Quechua-speaking women. Main findings: The Women's Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) adapted to Collao Quechua showed evidence of internal and external validity, optimal reliability, and invariance of measurement according to age, educational level, place of residence, and monthly family income in a sample of Quechua-speaking women. Implications: The Collao Quechua WAST can be implemented as a screening tool in primary health care services and in state institutions that address cases of intimate partner violence in regions where Collao Quechua is spoken, promoting early detection and timely response to this problem.

OBJECTIVES.: To determine the validity, measurement invariance, and reliability of the Women's Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) in the Collao Quechua language for Peruvian women.

MATERIALS AND METHODS.: A psychometric study was conducted to adapt the WAST to the Collao Quechua language of Puno and Cusco in a non-probability sample of 521 women, 46.1% of whom were between the ages of 18 and 34. Initially, the WAST was directly and reverse translated, then five expert judges reviewed the Collao Quechua version, and a focus group of women confirmed the clarity and comprehensibility of the items. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for measurement invariance, reliability analysis, and external validity using Spearman's rho.

RESULTS.: The unidimensional model of the Collao Quechua WAST reported adequate goodness-of-fit values (CFI= 0.995; TLI= 0.992; SRMR=0.051; RMSEA=0.063) and showed measurement invariance by age, educational level, place of residence, and monthly family income (Δ CFI or Δ RMSEA < 0.01). In terms of external validity, the Collao Quechua WAST and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) showed a direct relationship with moderate strength (Rho=0.618, p=0.001); it also reported optimal reliability, α =0.860 and ω=0.867.

CONCLUSIONS.: The unidimensional Collao Quechua WAST showed validity of its internal structure, external validity, invariance by age, educational level, place of residence, and monthly family income, and optimal reliability. Its use is recommended for screening for intimate partner violence in women who speak Collao Quechua.

BACKGROUND

Motivation for the study: Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem, with higher prevalence in indigenous communities. Therefore, it is essential to have culturally and linguistically appropriate tools that allow for early screening of this form of violence among Quechua-speaking women. Main findings: The Women's Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) adapted to Collao Quechua showed evidence of internal and external validity, optimal reliability, and invariance of measurement according to age, educational level, place of residence, and monthly family income in a sample of Quechua-speaking women. Implications: The Collao Quechua WAST can be implemented as a screening tool in primary health care services and in state institutions that address cases of intimate partner violence in regions where Collao Quechua is spoken, promoting early detection and timely response to this problem.