Original articles
Development of a 50-item version of the quality of life scale for pregnant Japanese women: A test of reliability and validity
2025 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 54-66
Details
2025 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 54-66
Objectives
This study aimed to test the reliability and validity of a 50-item version of the Quality of Life (QOL) Scale for Pregnant Japanese Women.
Subjects and methods
An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on Japanese pregnant women visiting for their pregnancy checkup in October 2021–March 2022. The main items were the original QOL Scale for Pregnant Japanese Women developed by the authors (50-item version), the WHOQOL-26, and the effects of COVID-19 on their pregnancy life. SPSS and AMOS were used for the statistical analysis, including item and exploratory factor analyses, calculation of reliability coefficients, verification of the suitability of factor structure models, a correlation analysis between existing scales and the new scale, and comparison of scores to known populations.
Results
The data of 541 women (valid response rate 69.0%) aged 31.5 ± 4.9 years and 24.6 ± 9.0 weeks of gestation was included in the analysis. Four items were deleted through the item analysis, and nine items with factor loadings <0.4 were deleted through the exploratory factor analysis. The questionnaire consisted of 9 factors and 37 items, with the number of questions per factor ranging from 2 to 8. The Cronbach's α coefficient for the scale overall was α=0.918, and each factor, α=0.708–0.902, confirmed good internal consistency. An analysis of the suitability of the factor structure model showed generally good results, with GFI=0.824, AGFI=0.791, CFI=0.859, and RMSEA=0.067. The scale had a correlation r of 0.817 compared to the WHOQOL-26, confirming concurrent validity. Based on previous studies, we compared scores in terms of the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and found that those who felt the impact had lower QOL scores than those who did not, confirming known group validity.
Conclusions
The 9-factor, 37-item QOL Scale for Pregnant Japanese Women was shown to have good reliability and validity, warranting future studies to continue investigating its clinical usefulness to make the scale easier to use in practice.
