088 Validation of the Vulvovaginal Symptoms Questionnaire in Women with Vulvar Dermatoses to Assess Sexual Function & Quality of Life

Abstract

The Vulvovaginal Symptoms Questionnaire (VSQ) is a validated, 21-question instrument assessing vulvovaginal health in four domains: symptoms, emotions, life impact, and sexual impact. In the original study, women with vulvar dermatoses were excluded. We sought to validate the VSQ in women with vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) and vulvar lichen planus (VLP) in order to objectively assess their symptoms including, importantly, the sexual impact of their vulvar symptoms. We recruited women with VLS or VLP at a vulvovaginal specialty clinic. Women completed the initial VSQ in clinic and a second VSQ electronically 2-4 weeks after their visit. We assessed test-retest reliability with Cohen’s kappa and assessed internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha. We evaluated the four domains with a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a test of the internal consistency via intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). 46 women completed both surveys. Age range was 38.6–79.9 years (mean 60.8±10.7). 30 women were sexually active. Cohen’s kappa for all questions on average was 0.49±0.17 (range: 0.19–0.78), suggesting moderate to substantial reliability. Cronbach’s alpha for the four domains were 0.79, 0.72, 0.84, and 0.66, respectively, indicating only acceptable internal consistency. CFA did not initially confirm model fit for the original four domains (RMSEA: 0.11, CFI: 0.67, TLI: 0.62, SRMR: 0.13). The ICCs were 0.65, 0.57, 0.71, and 0.49, respectively, indicating only moderate to good consistency. Validation of a model with different domains with better consistency and fit is ongoing.