Quality of life with pregnancy outcomes: Further evaluating item properties for refined Taiwan's FertiQoL

Abstract

We assessed the reliability and validity of Taiwan's version of FertiQoL, with a focus on the association between quality of life (QoL) and in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) pregnancy. 410 women undergoing IVF treatment were included. QoL measured by Taiwan's version of FertiQoL was assessed before embryo transfer. Item properties were examined using corrected item-total correlation, Rasch mean-square (MnSq), and internal consistency. Known-group validity was assessed using IVF pregnancy (i.e., chemical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, live birth) as the outcomes of interest. Five FertiQoL items, namely Q4, Q5, Q15, Q21, and T5, had low corrected item-total correlation (i.e., -0.146-0.290) in their embedded domains; three other items, namely Q11, Q14, and T2, did not have acceptable MnSq values in the Rasch analysis (i.e., infit MnSq: 1.31-2.28; outfit MnSq: 1.95-4.57). These items were removed and a refined Taiwan's FertiQoL was generated. The internal consistency for the refined Taiwan's FertiQoL was improved (α=0.928) with the capability of distinguishing women who had successful live birth from those who had failed live birth (i.e., 72.40±12.71vs. 69.21±13.26; p=0.019). The study results demonstrate that the refined Taiwan's FertiQoL is valid and reliable, suggesting that this FertiQoL should refined to be culturally and language appropriate for Taiwanese population.