[Validity analysis of Sapporo Medical University-sexual function questionnaire].

BACKGROUND We evaluated the validity of the Sapporo Medical University-sexual function questionnaire, comparing the response to each question of patients having sexual dysfunction with those of normal volunteers as controls. PATIENTS AND METHODS Responses from 335 patients with sexual dysfunction and 490 normal volunteers aged from 20 to 39 years old were evaluated. We compared mean scores of each question for patients having sexual dysfunction with those for controls. Discriminant analysis was used for evaluating which questions contributed more strongly to discriminating patients having the disease from controls. The analysis was also used for validating the questionnaire. RESULTS Mean scores for patients with sexual dysfunction were significantly lower than those for controls in all questions. Nine of the 11 questions were statistically useful to discriminate these two groups with discriminant analysis. The analysis also revealed that questions about frequency of erection, rigidity of the erectile penis and duration of erection highly contributed to discriminate these two groups. The discriminant analysis achieved high sensitivity and specificity for classifying the groups. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the use of the Sapporo Medical University-sexual function questionnaire is valid for discriminating patients with sexual dysfunction from subjects with normal sexual function.