Validación de un cuestionario para la medición de las creencias sobre el climaterio

(2) Abstract Objective. To design an instrument for measuring beliefs about the social, psychological, and physiological consequenc- es of women's climacteric stage. Material and Methods. The study included 340 women affiliated to Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales para los Trabajadores del Es- tado (Institute for Social Services and Security for State Workers, ISSSTE) (age mean=49.46, (SD 7.92). The mean number of pregnancies in the sample was 3.75 (SD 2.57), and the mean number of born children was 3.21 (SD 2.19); 48% of women were premenopausal, 10.9% perimenopau- sal, and 40.6% postmenopausal. The instrument consisted of 25 items. Results. A factorial analysis with Varimax rotation was carried out. Four factors were confirmed: dis- advantages (alpha=0.769), advantages (alpha=0.839), physi- ological (alpha=0.659), and psychological (alpha=0.711). Conclusions. This instrument shows good internal con- sistency, and measures four climacteric belief groups: a) be- liefs on disadvantages, b) beliefs on advantages, c) beliefs on physiological ailments, and d) beliefs on psychological symp- toms. All three confirmed dimensions of the climacteric phase have been proposed in other studies. The English ver- sion of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/ index.html Chavez-Ayala R, Andrade-Palos P, Rivera-Rivera L. Validacion de un cuestionario para la medicion de las creencias sobre el climaterio. Salud Publica Mex 2002;44:385-391. El texto completo en ingles de este articulo esta disponible en: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html