Development and Testing of the Dysmenorrhea Symptom Interference (DSI) Scale.
Chen X Chen, Tabitha Murphy, Susan Ofner and 5 others
PMID 32680445WHAT IT FOUND
The 9-item DSI scale captures how menstrual pain interferes with daily life in girls and women aged 14 to 42.
It has on-menses and off-menses versions, and a 0.3-point change was estimated as meaningful, but it did not detect worsening well.
Key findings
01The DSI has nine items covering physical activities, sleep, daily activities, work, concentration, enjoyment of life, leisure activities, social activities, and mood.
02A change of about 0.3 points on the 5-point scale was estimated as the smallest meaningful change.
03The on-menses version was responsive to pain improvement but not as responsive to pain worsening.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The participants were self-selected, not randomly selected, so the sample may not represent all patients with dysmenorrhea. Test-retest reliability was checked only in 32 on-menses participants whose symptoms did not change. The off-menses version was not tested for test-retest reliability. The leisure activities and social activities items had low content validity and may need further evaluation or removal. The scale did not detect pain worsening well. Some anchor categories for minimally important difference were below 10 observations, so estimates may be unstable. The study did not test whether the scale responds to dysmenorrhea treatments.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the scale's validation as evidence that any dysmenorrhea treatment works. This study measured symptom interference, not treatment effect, and the on-menses version did not detect worsening well.