Psychometric properties of the Farsi version of the women's perceptions of vaginal examination during labor questionnaire

BACKGROUND: Vaginal examination is the essential part of obstetric care in women's life. Although the assessment of women's perceptions of vaginal examination is important, no appropriate instrument in Farsi is available. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate validity and reliability of the Farsi version of the women's perceptions of vaginal examination during labor questionnaire. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out with 350 women who had vaginal childbirth between December 2016 and May 2017. The women were asked to fill out the demographic characteristics’ form and the women's perceptions of vaginal examination during labor questionnaire. Construct validity, internal consistency, and stability of the questionnaires were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, calculation of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and Spearman–Brown correlation coefficient, respectively. The SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) v. 21 and LISREL (linear structural relations) 8.80 were used for the data analysis. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Farsi version of the women's perceptions of vaginal examination during labor questionnaire had appropriate structure. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was reported as 0.76. The Spearman–Brown correlation coefficient also showed an appropriate test–retest reliability. CONCLUSION: Validity and reliability of this questionnaire can appropriately measure the women's perceptions of vaginal examination during labor among Iranian women.