Development and psychometric evaluation of self-management scale for patients with polycystic ovary syndrome in China: Protocol for a mixed-method study

Background: Although self-management does great importance to women with PCOS, there’s no standardized instrument to measure self-management ability in women with PCOS. The study aims to develop and evaluate psychometric properties of a PCOS self-management scale(PCOS-SMS). Method: This is a mixed-method study with a qualitative and a quantitative phase. The study will start from literature review, in which way we could combined the traditional chronic disease management evaluation method with the physiological and psychological characteristics of PCOS patients. Then qualitative study will be carried out to understand the experience and feelings of self-management in PCOS women and construct item pool of PCOS self-management scale. Delphi survey will give grading and guidance to the scientific of scale construction. The quantitative phase will evaluate the psychometric properties in each items including face, content, and construct validity as well as reliability. Discussion: The successful construction of the scale can provide an useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of self-management projects for patients with PCOS as well as a certain reference for the development of relevant scales in the future. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval was provided by Ethics Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University(KLLY-2021-186). Findings from this study will be disseminated to professionals and the public via peer-reviewed journal publications, popular social media and conference presentations.