Italian validation of the short form of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12)

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to translate the English short form of Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) and evaluate its validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. METHODS: The questionnaire was translated into Italian by standardized procedural steps, and the final version was submitted to women referred to urogynecological outpatient care for genital prolapse or urinary incontinence reporting sexual disorders (cases) or not (controls). For the test-retest evaluation, cases received the questionnaire 2 weeks later. The Wilcoxon test (non-parametric) was used to assess differences between cases and controls. Convergent validity was tested with the Italian version of the FSFI-19. The internal consistency was tested using Cronbachʼs alpha. The degree of concordance/agreement was measured with Cohenʼs kappa. The absolute agreement of test-retest results was tested with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: Sixty women were recruited for the study and answered the questionnaire. The overall rate of missing items was 1.3%. Construct validity was demonstrated, as the questionnaire discriminated significantly between patients with and without symptoms. Convergent validity with FSFI-19 was tested, and a linear correlation between scores was demonstrated (F < 0.001). Internal consistency reliability evaluated with Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory (0.54–0.81). Cohenʼs kappa values as absolute agreement coefficients were between 0.59 and 0.80 (good agreement). Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged between 0.88 and 0.94 (very satisfactory agreement) for each functional domain. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of the PISQ-12 is reliable, valid, and consistent. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00192-022-05235-0.