Validation of Iranian Version of Pregnancy Related Anxiety Questionnaire

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy is an acute period in the lifetime of women, during which numerousexcitatory physical and social changes occur. The purpose of this study is confirmatory factoranalysis of Pregnancy Related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ) that is designed in Iranian pregnantwomen population.

Methods: A total of 170 pregnant women in health centers of Kerman city were chosen throughrandom sampling method and completed PRAQ questionnaire and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI).In this study, confirmatory factor analysis and concurrent validity are used to evaluate the validityof models; and to test‑retest and Cronbach alpha were used for evaluating external and internalreliability in SPSS‑19 and the AMOS software to evaluate reliability of models.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis gave an acceptable value for the latent PRAQ in the questionscale and 5 micro‑scale level. Furthermore, significant correlation between the components and theoverall scale of the PRAQ questionnaire with the BAI confirmed concurrent validity of questionnaire.The reliability of questionnaire is confirmed based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value of 0.78 thatcalculated 0.69–0.76 for the five‑factors. A month later, reliability coefficient amplitude of test‑reteston forty pregnant women was between 0.65 and 0.72 which shows the reliability of PRAQ over time.

Conclusions: The short form of anxiety during pregnancy questionnaire has the essentialpsychometric properties. In this study, five‑factors extracted in the PRAQ were adapted withthe factors extracted from the original version. This study introduces an instrument that can bebenefit in measuring anxiety and concerns of women during pregnancy.

Keywords: Anxiety, Iranian, pregnancy, validation