Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) in Bahasa Melayu language- Translation and Validation In Multiethnic Population In Malaysia

Background: The menopause Rating Scale (MRS) is an internationally used tool to measure menopause-related symptoms to date and is unavailable in the Bahasa Melayu language. We aimed to translate and validate the Bahasa Melayu version of the MRS. Methods Translation of the English version of MRS into Bahasa Melayu was done by a bilingual expert and back-translated. Bahasa Melayu MRS was reviewed by a panel to determine the face validity. A total of 321 women aged 40–60 years residing in Klang, Selangor, Malaysia were selected by stratified random sampling method in a house-to-house survey. The Bahasa Melayu MRS was self-administered. Reliability analyses, including test-retest reliability (on 30 women after a two-week interval) were conducted. To ascertain the construct validity, 11 items were analyzed using exploratory factor analyses to determine the factor structure. To further support the psychometric study, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the structural model fit of Bahasa Melayu MRS. Results A total of 294 (91.6%) completed the survey and their mean age was 50.9 years (SD = 6.3). An overall Cronbach’s alpha for MRS was 0.904. Cronbach’s alpha for psychosomatic, urogenital, and Somatovegetative subscales were 0.889, 0.846, and 0.776 respectively. The corrected item correlations were approximately 0.6 and inter-item correlations were between 0.3 and 0.9. Assumptions for exploratory factor analyses were not violated; Kaiser–Meier–Olkin test revealed a value of 0.883 and Bartlett’s test value of sphericity was statistically significant (χ 2  = 2400.483 and p < 0.001). EFA identified three factors accounting for 51.4% of the variance. This study encountered straddling of items. EFA yielded all 4 psychological items in Factor 2. The items which are supposedly falling into Somatic-Vegetative and Urogenital domains are straddled in Factor 1. Two items (heart complications and bladder problems) are grouped in the 3rd Factor. Nevertheless, confirmatory factor analyses showed a good model fit, fitting well into the theoretical constructs. Conclusion The translated English version of the Menopause Rating Scale into the Bahasa Version showed excellent reliability, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. The instrument can be used to assess menopause-related symptoms among Malaysian women.