Designing and Validating Infertility Data Recording Tools in Iran

Objectives: Considering that the prevalence of infertility in Iran is higher than the world average and there is no system for recording these individuals' data, this study aimed at designing and validating infertility data recording tools in Iran. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire study was conducted in Tabriz in 2019. Five areas were prepared for the questionnaire (i.e., in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, intrauterine insemination, ovulation induction) and treatment outcomes) and used after reviewing the studies. The Delphi quantitative technique was applied to standardize and validate the questionnaire through evaluating five infertility specialists. The content validity index (CVI), content validity ratio (CVR), and coefficient of agreement (Cohen's kappa coefficient) were employed to assess content validity through a quantitative approach. Finally, the reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using the Kuder-Richardson formula through the evaluation of 50 infertile couples visiting AL-Zahra specialized and super-specialized hospital in Tabriz. Results: The CVI and CVR of all items were calculated and obtained greater than 0.8 except for items 8, 17, and 18 and thus were identified as appropriate items in the questionnaire. Kappa coefficients (k) were also calculated and found to be greater than 0.8 for all items except for the three above-mentioned items. The items with lower than an acceptable CVI, CVR, and k were modified, and the k of the total items was obtained as 0.95. Eventually, the reliability of the questionnaire and its domains were assessed, and the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was higher than 0.64, which was acceptable. Conclusions: A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the history and clinical problems of infertile couples with 5 domains and 61 items to record their information (desirable validity and reliability) in their clinical records.

Automated summary

This study aimed to design and validate infertility data recording tools in Iran, considering the high prevalence of infertility in the country and the lack of a system for recording data. The questionnaire was standardized and validated through a Delphi technique and evaluation by infertility specialists. The questionnaire showed good validity and reliability in recording the information of infertile couples.