Psychometric properties of the FertiQoL questionnaire in Italian infertile women in different stages of treatment.

BACKGROUND

Reliable Fertility-specific QoL measures can be obtained through the FertiQoL, a questionnaire with six-subscales that consider different core aspects of the person's wellbeing and way of behaving during treatment.

OBJECTIVE

Examine the psychometric properties of all six-subscales of the Italian FertiQoL in a sample of infertile women and explore the effects of the ART treatment phases.

METHOD

323 women, in three different treatment stages (Diagnostic, Stimulation, Transfer), completed the FertiQoL. Raw data were subject to Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and a structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to validate the hypothesised model.

RESULTS

CFA shows a good fit of the data to the FertiQoL hierarchical model (chi-square/df = 1.989, CFI = 0.88, RMSEA = 0.055). After the deletion of 2 items, all FertiQoL scales have good internal consistency. SEM showed that the ART treatment phase was positively associated with fertility-related QoL scores both in the Relational (β = 0.14, p < 0.05) and in the Tolerability (β = 0.17, p < 0.05) subscales.

CONCLUSION

All scales of the Italian FertiQoL version maintain good psychometric characteristics; Tolerability and Relational subscales are sensitive to the treatment stage and thus providing relevant information for the medical staff.