Introduction and hypothesis: Because of the importance and prevalence of incontinence among women, there is increasing interest in the development and use of well-constructed questionnaires studying quality of life. Also, there is a paucity of information on QOL in non-Western women suffering from urinary incontinence. The aim of this study was to translate the original English version of the I-QOL and to assess the reliability and validity of this questionnaire in Iranian patients with urinary incontinence.
Methods: Four hundred women with urinary incontinence completed the Persian version of the questionnaire. By Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the intraclass correlation coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis, the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed.
Results: The median age of the respondents was 48 years (range 27-90). The overall I-QOL summary score showed internal consistency of 0.96 (Cronbach's alpha). The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.96 for the total score. The range of correlation between the I-QOL total score and the subscales of the Sf-36 and the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) questionnaires were between 0.47 to 0.59 and 0.52 to 0.61 respectively.
Conclusion: The Persian version of the I-QOL can be used for measuring QOL in urinary incontinent women in Iran.