Measurement properties of patient‐reported outcome measures for women with dysmenorrhea: A systematic review

Abstract Background Dysmenorrhea, or menstrual pain, is a subjective experience, and can only be assessed by patient‐reported outcomes. These instruments should be reliable, valid and responsive. Aim To identify and critically appraise the available evidence for the measurement properties of specific patient‐reported outcome measures used for dysmenorrhea. Methods The PRISMA statement was used to report this systematic review. Databases searched were PubMed, SCOPUS, CINAHL, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar (April 2021; updated on February 2023). Original studies with primary data collection, with no restriction on language and publication date that reported psychometric properties of one or more dysmenorrhea‐related patient‐reported outcome measure. The literature searches, selection of studies, data extraction and assessment of the risk of bias were performed independently by two reviewers and followed the COSMIN guidelines. Results Thirty studies were analysed in this review, and 19 patient‐reported outcome measures were evaluated. The instruments varied in relation to the measured construct and measurement properties (validity, reliability and responsiveness). The methodological quality of the studies and the quality of evidence of the patient‐reported outcome measures were variable. Among the 13 studies that reported the development of patient‐reported outcome measures, most had inadequate methodological quality, and the overall rating was insufficient or inconsistent. Conclusions The Dysmenorrhea Symptom Interference (DSI) scale was the only identified patient‐reported outcome measure that has the potential to be recommended because of its sufficient rating combined with moderate quality of evidence for content validity. Future studies should further evaluate the measurement properties of the existing patient‐reported outcome measures, or develop new patient‐reported outcome measures following the COSMIN methodology. Patient or public contribution Not applicable as this is a systematic review. Trial registration PROSPERO protocol: CRD42021244410. Registration on April 22, 2021.