DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE MENORRHAGIA OUTCOMES QUESTIONNAIRE

Objective To develop and evaluate the acceptability, reliability and v alidity of a short, patient-based questionnaire for assessing the outc omes of surgical treatment for menorrhagia due to benign disease. Desi gn A psychometric study by postal survey. Setting Five hospitals in so utheast; England. Sample One hundred and eleven women undergoing hyste rectomy for menorrhagia due to benign disease. Methods Data from a lon g research questionnaire used in the North West Thames Hysterectomy St udy were analysed using standard psychometric methods to identify the subset of items which were the most scientifically sound indicators of outcome. The Menorrhagia Outcomes questionnaire is a 26-item question naire which covers symptoms, post-operative complications, quality of life, and women's satisfaction with outcome. The questionnaire was fie ld tested for acceptability, reliability and validity by postal survey . Results The Menorrhagia Outcomes Questionnaire was found to be highl y acceptable to women and showed excellent internal consistency, test- retest reliability, criterion and construct validity. Conclusion The M enorrhagia Outcomes Questionnaire is a practical and scientifically so und measure of outcome from the woman's perspective following surgical treatment for menorrhagia due to benign disease. It takes less than f ive minutes to complete, is appropriate for use with different surgica l treatments for menorrhagia leg, hysterectomy, endometrial resection, laser ablation) and is feasible for routine monitoring of large numbe rs of women by postal survey. Most importantly, this questionnaire has been shown to perform well from a scientific point view, having met s tandard psychometric criteria for reliability and validity.