The International Female Coital Incontinence Questionnaire (IFCI-Q): Development, Validation and Reliability Study.

INTRODUCTION

Coital urinary incontinence is an underestimated urinary symptom characterized by urine leakage during intercourse with a serious impact on female sexual function, which often may lead to the abandon of sexual activity. To date, there are no specific validated questionnaires for coital incontinence (CI).

AIM: Aim of the study was to develop and validate a questionnaire "International Female Coital Incontinence- Questionnaire" (IFCI-Q) to evaluate the presence, severity and type of CI and its impact on quality of sexual intercourse.

METHODS

The IFCI-Q validation process included the following stages: (i) Questionnaire development and expert focus group (urologists and gynecologists experts in the field of functional urology); (ii) Administration of IFCI-Q to sexually active women complained for CI, by cognitive interview; (iii) Expert focus group to assess for content validity; (iv) Psychometric assessment of internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha calculation; (v) Test-retest reliability.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Aim of the questionnaire was to evaluate the presence, severity and type of CI, its impact on quality of sexual intercourse and psychological status and to identify concomitant urinary symptoms. Psychometric properties outcomes: internal consistency and reliability are considered acceptable for Cronbach's α coefficient >0.7 and Cohen's k-test >0.6, respectively. Test-retest reliability was detected by administering the questionnaire twice to the all included women with a time interval of 2 weeks. The content validity was evaluated by a panel of clinical experts.

RESULTS

Thirty women (mean ± SD age: 43.4 ± 17.1 years) complained of CI completed the IFCI-Q. A total of 43.4% of patients had OAB symptoms, 23.3% had mixed urinary incontinence (UI) and 6.6% complained of stress UI. Patients with CI during penetration had a higher prevalence of predominant SUI (7/10), and all women suffering from CI during orgasm had OAB symptoms (11/11). A total of 80% women feel depressed and 56.6% patients reported that CI restricts their sexual activity. Internal consistency and replicability of data were in the adequate range (Cronbach α = 0.737). The test-retest procedure revealed that the k-values of each item are very good.

CONCLUSION

IFCI-Q is a reliable questionnaire on CI and demonstrated a high level of internal consistency and reliability. Gubbiotti M, Giannantoni A, Rubilotta E, et al. The International Female Coital Incontinence Questionnaire (IFCI-Q): Development, Validation and Reliability Study. J Sex Med 2022;19:158-163.