| Literature DB >> 21665875 |
Jacky Boivin1, Janet Takefman, Andrea Braverman.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To develop the first international instrument to measure fertility quality of life (FertiQoL) in men and women experiencing fertility problems, to evaluate the preliminary psychometric properties of this new tool and to translate FertiQoL into multiple languages.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2011 PMID: 21665875 PMCID: PMC3137391 DOI: 10.1093/humrep/der171
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Hum Reprod ISSN: 0268-1161 Impact factor: 6.918
FertiQoL item generation, selection and reduction.
| Task and aims | Participants | Materials | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literature review and expert consultation to generate potential items | Psychosocial experts in reproductive health ( | Psychosocial studies | 302 items in 14 domains (e.g. partnership, self-esteem and career) |
| FertiQoL Steering Committee ( | Existing fertility-related tools | ||
| Groups included: researchers, psychologists, social workers, counselors, patients, gynecologists, nurses, clinicians in 11 countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA | Treatment evaluation tools | ||
| QoL measures | |||
| WHO development manual | |||
| Classification and reduction of item pool to eliminate redundant or irrelevant items or rare QoL effects | FertiQoL Technical Working Group (Boivin, Takefman, Braverman) and expert panel | WHO selection criteria: items should be revealing of QoL, cover key domains, use simple language, ask about single issues, free of ambiguity, etc | Item pool reduced to 116 items |
| WHO response scales matched to items | |||
| Focus groups with patients to validate the items generated by the experts and uncover any effects overlooked by the experts | 17 focus groups ( | Structured interview guide (facilitators), workbooks (participants) and 116 item-pool FertiQoL | Item decrease from 116 to 102 (22 items eliminated and 8 added) based on > or <50% endorsement |
| Purposive sampling for age (< or >35 years), gender, duration of infertility (< or >2 years) and parity (< or >1 child) | Added 18 treatment items; Wording corrected; eliminated and/or combined redundant items; improved face validity; ensured items pertained to QoL and response scale appropriate | ||
| Psychosocial experts facilitated open, unstructured discussion groups followed by structured feedback exercise on FertiQoL item pool; duration 1.5–2 h | |||
| Survey to assess acceptability and feasibility of FertiQoL item style in different languages | 102 Core FertiQoL + 27 optional treatment items | Final Core FertiQol pool for psychometric phase was 102 items + 27 optional Treatment items | |
| Additional items inquired about clarity, coverage and problems with item pool | FertiQoL well accepted, perceived to be important and timely | ||
| Material translated by experts | Items easy to understand and relevant | ||
| FertiQoL completing 15–20 min | |||
| Main problems: items that did not apply to all people (e.g. single or untreated) and timeframe for 'Instructions' required |
WHO, World Health Organization; TWG, technical working group (Boivin, Takefman, Braverman). FertiQoL TWG involved in all aspects of project development.
aFocus groups in Singapore cancelled due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus.
Demographic characteristics of the online and clinic samplesa.
| Variable | Online ( | Clinic ( | Test statistic ( |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic | |||
| Age in years mean (SD) | 32.9 (4.9) | 35.2 (4.0) | 7.9b |
| Women % ( | 96.8 (1014) | 79.5 (291) | 113.4b |
| Relationship status % ( | 49.4b | ||
| Single | 0.2 (3) | 4.0 (13) | |
| In stable relationship | |||
| Same-sex | 1.7 (18) | 6.2 (20) | |
| Heterosexual | 98.0 (1027) | 89.8 (289) | |
| Years in partnership mean (SD)d | 6.85 (3.9) | 7.0 (3.9) | 0.6 |
| University education (% yes, | 57.1 (598) | 66.2 (139) | 9.5c |
| Residence % ( | 40.4b | ||
| Urban | 28.3 (296) | 27.1 (95) | |
| Suburban | 55.8 (584) | 69.5 (244) | |
| Rural | 15.9 (166) | 3.4 (12) | |
| Country % ( | 243.4b | ||
| Australia/NZ | 14.5 (152) | 25.1 (92) | |
| Canada | 10.3 (108) | 42.0 (154) | |
| UK | 8.7 (91) | 2.7 (10) | |
| USA | 64.1 (672) | 30.2 (111) | |
| Other | 2.4 (25) | — | |
| Reproductive characteristics | |||
| Parenthood % ( | 18.9 (197) | 30.1 (108) | 19.8b |
| Years infertile mean (SD) | 3.4 (2.9) | 2.9 (2.0) | 2.4c |
| Know why infertile, % ( | 75.4 (790 | 70.3 (225) | 3.3 |
| Perceived diagnosis % ( | 82.4b | ||
| Unexplained | 10.9 (86) | 14.0 (38) | |
| Female factor | 44.5 (351) | 18.0 (49) | |
| Male factor | 19.9 (157) | 21.7 (59) | |
| Mixed | 11.9 (94) | 14.7 (40) | |
| Same-sex | 1.6 (13) | 3.3 (9) | |
| Age-related | 4.1 (32) | 8.8 (24) | |
| Other | 7.1 (56) | 19.5 (53) | |
| Other health problems % (n) | 30.8 (309) | 24.0 (260) | 5.8c |
| Years treated mean (SD) | 2.03 (2.4) | 2.43 (1.8) | 1.6 |
A total of 491 people did not provide data years of treatment due to no treatment experience or missing data.
aSample size varies per variable.
bP < 0.001.
cP < 0.05.
dFor people in partnerships.
Factor loadings for online and clinic (in parenthesis) samples on FertiQoL items.
| Core FertiQoL | Optional Treatment FertiQoL module | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional | Relational | Mind/body | Social | Treatment environment | Treatment tolerability | |
| 0.752 (0.800) | ||||||
| Grief/loss | 0.763 (0.792) | |||||
| Sad/depressed | 0.730 (0.772) | |||||
| Fluctuate hope/despair | 0.643 (0.759) | |||||
| Jealousy and resentment | 0.737 (0.634) | |||||
| Unable to cope | 0.640 (0.594) | |||||
| 0.749 (0.732) | ||||||
| Difficult to talk | 0.629 (0.696) | |||||
| Negative impact on relationship | 0.707 (0.633) | |||||
| Content relationship | 0.768 (0.616) | |||||
| Strengthen relationship | 0.713 (0.603) | |||||
| Satisfied sexual relationship | 0.575 (0.600) | |||||
| 0.731 (0.745) | ||||||
| Pain/discomfort | 0.566 (0.663) | |||||
| Feel worn outb | 0.620 (0.627) | |||||
| Disrupt activities | 0.704 (0.625) | |||||
| Concentration | (0.634)a | 0.554 (0.413) | ||||
| Life on holdb | (0.577)a | 0.572 (0.355) | ||||
| 0.669 (0.669) | ||||||
| Friend support | 0.751 (0.649) | |||||
| Society expect | 0.495 (0.446) | |||||
| Isolated | (0.558)a | 0.509 (0.531) | ||||
| Handle/pregnant othersb | 0.538a (0.589)a | 0.306 (0.350) | ||||
| Shame, embarrassmentb | 0.527a (0.580)a | 0.319 (0.440) | ||||
| 0.813 (0.784) | ||||||
| Quality treatment information | 0.802 (0.784) | |||||
| Quality surgery and medical treatment | 0.780 (0.763) | |||||
| Fertility staff understand us | 0.728 (0.750) | |||||
| 0.632 (0.664) | ||||||
| Medical services desired available | 0.576 (0.585) | |||||
| Bothered effect daily activities and work | 0.799 (0.790) | |||||
| Bothered physical effects | 0.792 (0.732) | |||||
| Complicated medication and procedures | 0.645 (0.715) | |||||
| Treatment effects on mood | 0.645 (0.681) | |||||
| Online eigenvalue (% variance) | 7.62 (31.8) | 2.61 (10.9) | 1.44 (6.0) | 1.16 (4.8) | 3.48 (34.9) | 1.92 (19.3) |
| Clinic eigenvalue (% variance) | 8.93 (37.8) | 2.37 (9.9) | 1.23 (5.1) | 1.08 (4.5) | 3.80 (38.0) | 1.68 (16.8) |
Bold indicates first item of each domain.
Some items reversed to avoid negative loadings. See www.fertiqol.org for final FertiQoL item wording, response scale wording and downloads in 20 languages. Only factor loadings >0.30 are shown. Factor loadings for Clinic sample in parenthesis.
aIndicates a cross-loadings.
bWording for these items changed as a result of psychometric evaluation and participant feedback.
Means and standard deviations for FertiQoL subscales and total scaled scores for the validation sample (online, clinic combined).
| Scale | QoL domain | Number of items | Cronbach alpha | Mean (SD) Scaled score 0–100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core subscales | |||||
| Emotional | 1349 | Impact on emotions (e.g. causes sadness, resentment, grief) | 6 | 0.90 | 45.10 (23.2) |
| Mind-body | 1338 | Impact on physical health (e.g. fatigue, pain), cognition (e.g. poor concentration) and behavior (e.g. disrupted daily activities) | 6 | 0.84 | 54.86 (21.2) |
| Relational | 1330 | Impact on partnership (e.g. sexuality, communication and commitment) | 6 | 0.80 | 68.70 (19.2) |
| Social | 1343 | Impact on social aspects (e.g. social inclusion, expectations and support) | 6 | 0.75 | 51.10 (20.6) |
| Environment | 1072 | Impacts related to treatment environment (e.g. access, quality, interactions with staff) | 6 | 0.84 | 61.53 (19.6) |
| Treatment tolerability | 1093 | Impacts due to consequences of treatment (e.g. physical and mode effects, daily disruptions) | 4 | 0.72 | 58.81 (20.6) |
All items reversed or scored so that higher scores indicate more favorable QoL. Core FertiQoL refers to see www.fertiqol.org for final FertiQoL items, response scale wording and downloads in 20 languages. Bold refers to total scores.