Psychometric properties of women’s satisfaction with the childbirth education class questionnaire for Iranian population
Abstract Background: Childbirth preparation classes can reduce pregnant women’s anxiety and fear levels by providing them with training supports. The importance of mothers’ participation in these classes, evaluation of their satisfaction with these classes, and lack of a standard instrument in Iran led to the necessity of conducting this study for the translation and psychometric analysis of the women’s satisfaction with the childbirth education class questionnaire for the population of Iranian women. Methods: The questionnaire was translated from English into Persian through the forward-backward translation method. The cluster sampling method was employed to select 205 pregnant women with gestational age of 35-37 weeks from all health complexes of Tabriz, Iran. The face, content, and construct validity of the research instrument were assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were measured to evaluate the overall reliability of the questionnaire. Results: The impact scores of all items were above 1.5. The content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR) of the questionnaire were 0.88 and 0.94, respectively. The convergent construct validity of the whole questionnaire and those of its three subscales were confirmed through the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The factor loadings of no items were below 0.3, and the X2⁄df ratio was smaller than 5. In addition, the RMSEA was smaller than 0.08; therefore, the overall model validity was confirmed. Cronbach’s alpha and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were 0.93 and 0.96, respectively, indicating the acceptable reliability of the questionnaire. Conclusion: The Persian version of this questionnaire, entitled "Women’s Satisfaction with Childbirth Education Class" is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring Iranian women’s satisfaction with childbirth education classes.