Gynecological Examination Attitudes Scale: a Methodological Study

Objective Gynecological examination is very important to protect the reproductive health of women. Women do not want to go to a gynecological examination for reasons such as poor results, embarrassment, privacy, and negative experiences. The objective of this study was to design and develop the Gynecological Examination Attitudes Scale (GEAS) and assess its psychometric properties. Methods Cross sectional, mixed methods design. A STROBE checklist was used. The study was carried out two phases. In phase one, a literature search, cognitive interviews (n:7) and a pilot study were conducted to construct and revise scale indicators. In phase two, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted with three women group (exploratory factor analysis group: 293; confirmatory factor analysis: 225 and test-retest: 28). Results The draft scale consisted of 47 items, and result of the factor analysis applied to test the construct validity. The KMO test for sampling adequacy was 0.86. We conducted exploratory factor analysis to model the interrelationships among items. Results of the analysis the scale was consisted of 32 items and three sub-dimensions as individual response, barriers, individual expectations. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total scale was 0.91; Individual Response was 0,94, Barriers was 0,78, Individual Expectations was 0,90. The correlation coefficients between the factors and the correlation coefficient as a result of the test-retest study were found to be significant for the whole scale. Conclusions GEAS is a new tool for determining women's gynecological examination attitudes. The GEAS shows acceptable reliability and evidence of convergent validity among women.