Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Scale for Pregnancy-Related Discomforts

Objective: This study examined the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Scale for Pregnancy-related Discomforts.

Method: This cross-sectional and methodological study was carried out between November 17, 2014 and December 23, 2015 in the gynecology and pediatrics clinics of a state hospital, located in the western region of Turkey, with the participation of 493 pregnant and 150 non-pregnant women. The study investigated the reliability and validity of the Scale for Pregnancy-related Discomforts. The study analyzed the structural validity of the scale using the contrasted group validity and examined reliability through the coefficients of internal consistency and corrected item total correlations.

Results: The average age of pregnant women was 26.42 ± 3.53 (min:18 max:43) years. Among the participants, 33.3% had graduated from secondary schools, 77.1% were housewives, and 88.2% had social insurance. Based on the total score of the Scale for Pregnancy-related Discomforts, the pregnant women’s scores were significantly higher than the scores of the non-pregnant women (p < 0.001). Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of the subscales in the Scale ranged from 0.80 to 0.82; their corrected item total correlations varied between 0.251 and 0.857.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the Turkish version of the Scale for Pregnancy-related Discomforts, with its eight subscales and 41 items, was valid and reliable for each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.