Psychometric Evaluation of the Persian Version of the ‘Aging Male Scales’ Questionnaire

BACKGROUND Men, much like women, are faced with age-related menopause-like symptoms as they age. In recent years, increasing attention has been drawn to clinical research into elderly men and their health-related quality of life. The Aging Male Scales (AMS) questionnaire is an international tool for assessing the health-related quality of life in elderly men. Hence far this questionnaire has not been subjected to psychometric assessment in Iran. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the AMS questionnaire specific to the health of elderly men in Iran. METHODS To validate this instrument, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 521 healthy Iranian men aged 40-65 years old, who attended the blood transfusion center clinic between February 2011 and June 2012. The English version of the AMS questionnaire was translated to Persian and then back-translated. To determine the reliability of the AMS questionnaire, internal consistency was evaluated and test-retest was done. The questionnaire was validated using convergent and structural validity methods. To assess the factor structure of the questionnaire, a correlation matrix of questions and domains was used. RESULTS Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7 (0.73-0.88) in all domains. A Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.87 between pretest and posttest indicated a high correlation and an acceptable reliability. The convergent validity of the questionnaire was found acceptable by calculating the correlation between the domains and items-total correlation ranging 0.40-0.85, except for question 14 that had a 0.28 correlation with the whole test. The criterion-related validity of the questionnaire in the psychological domain was confirmed with the "two-item Patient Health Questionnaire" (r = 0.63, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS According to the results, the Persian version of the AMS questionnaire has high validity and reliability and may be used to assess the health-related quality of life of men between 40 and 65 years old.