Development and Psychometric Properties of Menstrual Health Seeking Behaviors Questionnaire (MHSBQ-42) in Female Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Lack of accurate menstrual knowledge, attitude, and practices leave female adolescents ignorant of the necessary health behaviors during menstruation. This study aimed to develop a menstrual health-seeking behavior questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior to evaluate its psychometric properties in female adolescents in Tehran. METHODS: This study was conducted on 578 female adolescents aged 12–15 years in Tehran. The first draft of the menstrual health-seeking behavior questionnaire containing 52 items was developed based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The content and face validity of the questionnaire was assessed by a panel of experts. Construct validity was also assessed using exploratory factor analysis (KMO=0.73) with varimax rotation. Cranach’s alpha and test-retest were used to examine the reliability of the questionnaire. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0. RESULTS: The content and face validity of the 42 items were finally confirmed. Content validity index was greater than 0.73 for all six TPB constructs. Explanatory factor analysis yielded an acceptable fit for the six-factor model (RMSE=0.053, 95% CI 0.042–0.064). These factors jointly explained 65% of the variance in the outcome variables. Cranach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.91, demonstrating an excellent internal consistency and high reliability of the questionnaire. Test-retest reliability was also satisfactory for all items (ICC=0.86–0.94). CONCLUSION: The results illustrate that the menstrual health-seeking behavior questionnaire is psychometrically adequate and highly reliable. This theoretically grounded questionnaire can be well applied in future interventions for female adolescents to assess their menstrual health-related knowledge, attitude, and practices.