Psychometric Evaluation of the Health-Related Quality of Life Scale in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS-HRQOL): An Assessment of Internal Consistency Reliability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v6i3.782Keywords:
Scale Development, Scale Validation, Psychometric Assessment, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Quantitative Study, Health-Related Quality of Life Scale, Reliability and Validity AnalysisAbstract
In order to determine the evaluation of multidimensional effects of PCOS towards patients’ wellness, this study is initiated to set up the testing and measurement validity of a recently constructed 101-item tool for assessing health-related quality of life (PCOS-HRQOL). This hormonal illness posits a complicated pattern of metabolic, regenerated dermatological issues with reproductive endocrine morphology in women’s childbearing age that harm their reported health issues. Despite of the traditional and clinical scenario of the disease, this health-concerned quality of life scale enquires the holistic experience of women by making assessments on its broad three domains consisting of 22 constructs namely physical health, psychological health and defense mechanisms. The illness related instrument was implemented on 1,105 females with the condition of PCOS structurally categorized into distinct generational cohorts covering the span of 16-25, 26-35 and 36-45 years. The comprehensive methodological assessment was captured by the design following women’s conscious and unconscious experiences for illness. All the subscales had high internal consistency with excellent stability, as indicated by Cronbach's alpha coefficients. In the end, these psychometric measures offer a fairly reliable reference to track treatment outcomes, patient-reported progress, and fine-tune treatment strategies over time.
References
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Anjum, F. A., & Khan, N. (2023). Defense mechanisms in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language, 9(2), 145–158. https://pjsel.jehanf.com/index.php/journal/article/view/1176
Ballard, K. D., Seaman, H. E., de Vries, C. S., & Wright, J. T. (2006). What's the delay? A qualitative study of women's experiences of reaching a diagnosis of endometriosis. Fertility and Sterility, 86(5), 1296–1301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2006.04.054
Başar Gökcen, B., Akdevelioğlu, Y., Canan, S., & Bozkurt, N. (2020). Increased risk of eating disorders in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a case-control study. Gynecological Endocrinology, 36(9), 764-767. https://doi.org/10.1080/09513590.2020.1744554
Behboodi Moghadam, Z., Fereidooni, B., Saffari, M., & Montazeri, A. (2018). Polycystic ovary syndrome and its impact on Iranian women’s quality of life: A population-based study. BMC Women's Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-018-0658-1
Chaudhari, A. P., Mazumdar, K., & Mehta, P. D. (2018). Anxiety, depression, and quality of life in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 40(3), 239-246. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpsym.ijpsym_561_17
Cho, E., & Kim, S. (2014). Cronbach’s coefficient Alpha. Organizational Research Methods, 18(2), 207-230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114555994
Cooney, L. G., Lee, I., Sammel, M. D., & Dokras, A. (2017). High prevalence of moderate and severe depressive and anxiety symptoms in polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Human Reproduction, 32(5), 1075-1091. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dex044
Cronin, L., Guyatt, G., Griffith, L., Wong, E., Azziz, R., Futterweit, W., Cook, D., & Dunaif, A. (1998). Development of a health-related quality-of-Life questionnaire (PCOSQ) for women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)1. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 83(6), 1976-1987. https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.83.6.4990
Dokras, A., Clifton, S., Futterweit, W., & Wild, R. (2012). Increased prevalence of anxiety symptoms in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Fertility and Sterility, 97(1), 225-230.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2011.10.022
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2003). SPSS for Windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 update (4th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Gliem, J. A., & Gliem, R. R. (2003). Calculating, interpreting, and reporting Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for Likert-type scales. In Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education (pp. 82-88).
Hayat, I., Ahmed, A & Anjum, F. A. (2023). Defense Mechanisms in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language (PJSEL) 9 (2).https://pjsel.jehanf.com/index.php/journal/article/view/1176
Hayat, I., Ahmed, A & Anjum, F. A. (2023). Exploring constructs for scale (PCOS-HRQOL) based on conscious and unconscious experiences of women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Journal of Policy Research (JPR), 9(3), 113–123. https://ideas.repec.org/a/rfh/jprjor/v9y2023i3p113-123.html
Hayat, I., Ahmed, A., & Anjum, F. A. (2023). Defense Mechanisms in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language (PJSEL), 9(2), 240-254.https://jehanf.com/pjsel/index.php/journal/article/view/1176
Jones, G. (2004). The polycystic ovary syndrome health-related quality of life questionnaire (PCOSQ): A validation. Human Reproduction, 19(2), 371-377. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deh048
Kitzinger, C., & Willmott, J. (2002). ‘The thief of womanhood’: Women's experience of polycystic ovarian syndrome. Social Science & Medicine, 54(3), 349-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00034-x
Nasiri-Amiri, F., Ramezani Tehrani, F., Simbar, M., Montazeri, A., & Mohammadpour, R. A. (2016). Health-related quality of life questionnaire for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOSQ-50): Development and psychometric properties. Quality of Life Research, 25(7), 1791-1801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-016-1232-7
Palmer, C. A., Bower, J. L., Cho, K. W., Clementi, M. A., Lau, S., Oosterhoff, B., & Alfano, C. A. (2024). Sleep loss and emotion: A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 50 years of experimental research. Psychological Bulletin, 150(4), 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000410
Perry, J. C. (1989). An empirical study of defense mechanisms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46(5), 444. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810050058010
Rotterdam ESHRE/ASRM-Sponsored PCOS Consensus Workshop Group Revised (2003) consesus on diagnostic criteria and long-term health risks related to polycystic ovary syndrome. Fertil Steril. 2004; 81: 19-25.
Rotterdam ESHRE/ASRM-Sponsored PCOS Consensus Workshop Group. (2004). Revised 2003 consensus on diagnostic criteria and long-term health risks related to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Human Reproduction, 19(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deh098
Taghavi, S., Sadoghi, M., & Khodabakhsh, R. (2025). Investigating the effect of attachment styles on the level of perceived anxiety and stress in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): The moderating role of defense mechanisms. Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 19(2), 88–97.
Ursachi, G., Horodnic, I. A., & Zait, A. (2015). How reliable are measurement scales? External factors with indirect influence on reliability estimators. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, 679-686. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00123-9
Vaillant, G. E. (2000). Adaptive mental mechanisms: Their role in a positive psychology. American Psychologist, 55(1), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.89
Wild, R. A., Carmina, E., Diamanti-Kandarakis, E., Dokras, A., Escobar-Morreale, H. F., Futterweit, W., Lobo, R., Norman, R. J., Talbott, E., & Dumesic, D. A. (2010). Assessment of cardiovascular risk and prevention of cardiovascular disease in women with the polycystic ovary syndrome: A consensus statement by the androgen excess and polycystic ovary syndrome (AE-PCOS) society. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 95(5), 2038-2049. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2009-2724
Williams, S., Sheffield, D., & Knibb, R. C. (2018). The polycystic ovary syndrome quality of life scale (PCOSQOL): Development and preliminary validation. Health Psychology Open, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2055102918788195
World Health Organization. (2026). Polycystic ovary syndrome. WHO Fact Sheets. World Health Organization
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s). Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
JSSR's Editorial Board shares the vision of providing free access to information, education, and science for everyone, thus promoting its content through an OPEN ACCESS POLICY, fulfilling the DOAJ definition of open access. The JSSR adheres to an Open Access and Copyright Licensing Policy based on the belief that making research freely accessible to the public promotes greater global knowledge sharing.
The JSSR uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The authors who apply and publish in JSSR consent to abide by the copyright policy set out in the Creative Commons 4.0 license (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license).
- Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s).
- Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
While "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself."




