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The Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ): A psychometric evaluation of the 36-item Norwegian version |
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| Authors: | EINAR KRISTIAN BORUD MONICA MARTINUSSEN ANNE ELISE EGGEN SAMELINE GRIMSGAARD |
| Affiliation: | The National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway; Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University of Tromsø, Norway; Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway; Clinical Research Center, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway |
| Abstract: | The Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) was designed specifically to study possible changes that occur during menopause. The purpose of this study was to perform a psychometric evaluation of the Norwegian version of the WHQ by examining the factor structure and construct validity of the instrument. Data used for the evaluation were collected at baseline of the ACUFLASH study, a randomized, controlled clinical trial that evaluated the effect of acupuncture treatment on menopausal symptoms. Altogether, 267 women with a very high frequency of hot flushes were included in the study. Some deficiencies in the WHQ questionnaire were observed when applied to this sample, including an unclear factor structure, low alpha values for some dimensions, and a strong floor effect in the vasomotor symptoms dimension. The total scale score appears reliable, but care should be taken when interpreting some of the subscales. |
| Keywords: | Menopause quality of life acupuncture |