Menopause comfort scale: a scale development study

BACKGROUND: Menopause is a transitional period. A large proportion of women experience severe menopausal symptoms, which affect their quality of daily life and comfort. Improving the well-being and comfort of women who are affected physically, socio-culturally, psycho-spiritually, and environmentally during menopause is of extreme importance for nurses. The aim in conducting the present study was to develop the Menopause Comfort Scale to determine the comfort levels of menopausal women and to perform its validity and reliability study in Turkish. METHODS: In this descriptive, comparative, and methodological study, it was aimed to develop the Menopause Comfort Scale and to analyze its psychometric properties. In the sample, 423 women who met the inclusion criteria and volunteered to participate in the study were included. The Descriptive Information Form and the Menopause Comfort Scale were used to collect data. RESULTS: In this study, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient was calculated as 0.782. The Bartlett's test of sphericity yielded the following result: χ² = 821.787 p = 0.000. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, the 11 items were grouped under 4 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.00. The overall scale explained 71.314% of the total (common) variance. The confirmatory factor analysis yielded the following: fit indices: (χ²/df = 1.34), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): 0.04, Normed Fit Index (NFI): 0.93, Comparative Fit Index (CFI): 0.98 and Goodness of Fit Index (GFI): 0.96. The reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as α = 0.814. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the Menopause Comfort Scale developed in this study is a valid and reliable measurement tool, and it can be administered to assess the comfort levels of menopausal women in psychological, environmental, physical, and social dimensions.