The German Version of the ‘ICIQ Vaginal Symptoms Questionnaire’ (German ICIQ-VS): An Instrument Validation Study

Introduction: No validated questionnaire that evaluates vaginal symptoms is currently available in the German language. Here, we report the translation and validation process of the German ICIQ-VS. Subjects: Pilot study: 10 patients without any specific disease. Main study: 58 patients (cases) suffering from genital descensus higher than grade 1 pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POPQ) and 51 patients (controls) without vaginal affections. Methods: To establish a cultural-adaptive equivalent in German, recommendations from Guillemin et al. [J Clin Epidemiol 1993;46:1417–1432] were carefully followed. Participants of the main study were asked to fill in the questionnaire at three time points [baseline (T1), 7 days later (T2) and 1 year later (T3)]. Reliability, validity and sensitivity to change were evaluated. Results: In our pilot study, all questionnaire items were correctly interpreted and answered. In the main study, no changes from the original format were observed after translation and cultural adaptation. For the cases, internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha 0.72–0.79) and test-retest reliability was moderate to near-perfect for single items (weighted kappa 0.67–0.94). Sensitivity to change and content validity were excellent. Construct validity revealed statistically significant differences between groups. Conclusion: The ICIQ-VS has successfully been translated and validated into the German language.