Aim: Our goals were to assess the psychometrical characteristics of EHP-30, to test its higher degree of appropriateness compared to the generic Quality of Life-assessment tools for Italian women suffering from endometriosis, and to determine its ability to identify the disease's effects on the patients' psychosocial condition, highlighting critical points that can be modified for future linguistic validation.
Methods: Participants to our study were 98 women between 19 and 51-year-old (M=34.4, SD=7.5), selected from patients of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, ARNAS Civico Hospital, Palermo, Italy. All of them had a surgical diagnosis of endometriosis with histological confirmation. Quality of Life was assessed through generic (SF-36) and specific (EHP-30) instruments.
Results: Our study shows that the current Italian version of EHP-30 is affected by overall weaker construct validity than the English one; it seems that this has to be ascribed to the inadequacy of the EHP-30 translation into Italian. In particular, unsatisfactory reliability levels have been observed for social support and self-image scales. An incorrect order of response categories has been in addition found out for several items of the Italian version of EHP-30. Research results suggest solutions to adopt for a revision of the EHP-30 Italian version that can satisfy the requirements of validity and reliability.
Conclusion: Although requiring a structural and linguistic revision, also the Italian version of a specific measurement instrument as EHP-30 is, appears to be more appropriate than generic tools to assess the quality of life of Italian women suffering for endometriosis.