Psychometric properties and validation of the German-language King's Health Questionnaire in women with stress urinary incontinence.

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of and validate the German-language version of the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) in women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

METHODS

A total of 145 women treated for stress incontinence with surgery or physiotherapy completed the the KHQ and the SF-36 before and after treatment. Psychometric analyses of the quality of life (QoL) instruments determined the reliability (Cronbach's alpha), internal and external validity, and responsiveness of the KHQ subscales.

RESULTS

The KHQ showed good internal consistency, content validity, and criterion validity as measured by correlation with scores on the SF-36. Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged from 0.76 to 0.86, indicating a high internal consistency of the subscales. Concerning criterion validity, correlations between the KHQ subscales and the SF-36 were low to moderate. The highest correlation was found between the general health perception subscales of both questionnaires.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate good psychometric properties for the German-language KHQ.