Abstract
BACKGROUND: With specific symptomatology and clinical presentation, the validity of standard quality of life assessment scales is questionable for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) women. AIM: The aim of the study was to translate and validate the Hindi version of the PCOS-related Quality of Life (PCOSQOL) scale into culturally adaptable, screening tool for Indian women with PCOS. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After standard translation and linguistic validation, modifications were done as per culturally acceptable items. After the item content validity index and scale content validity ratio testing, the preliminary tool was prepared. After pilot testing and minor modifications, the final PCOSQOL for Indian Women (PCOSQOL-I) tool was applied to 287 PCOS women to check reliability, exploratory factor analysis, uniqueness, and factor loading. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: R (version 4.3.0 [2023-04-21]). RESULTS: The CVI of the 27-item Hindi tool was 0.73, 0.83, 0.70, and 0.72, respectively, for relevance, clarity, appropriateness, and necessity, thus indicating recommended content validity. A three-factor solution emerged through exploratory factor analysis with proportional variance for factors 1 (impact of PCOS), 2 (hirsutism), and 3 (infertility) as 0.22, 0.12, and 0.10, respectively. The cumulative variance was 0.22, 0.35, and 0.44, respectively. There was high internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha 0.89). On factor loadings, and dropping items with value <0.3, final 25-item PCOSQOL-I scale was developed where each item scored 0-4 with higher score indicating better quality of life. CONCLUSION: The PCOSQOL-I scale has good reliability and may be used to screen the quality of life for PCOS women. Further testing of the tool is warranted to check its competency to differentiate among PCOS women with different phenotypes.