Translation and psychometric properties of the Iranian version of the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST)

The Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST) is a simple user friendly screening tool to identify women who suffer from severe PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome)/PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) and who are likely to benefit from treatment. This study aimed to develop and validate PSST in Iran. The English language of the PSST was translated into Persian (Iranian language) and was used in this study. A forward-backward translation procedure was followed to develop the Iranian version of the questionnaire.A random sample of women students aged 18 and over completed the questionnaire in Tehran, Iran. Statistical analysis was performed to test the reliability and validity. In all, 498 individuals were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 23.05 (SD=3.29) years and the mean days of cycle and bleeding was 29.48 (SD=4.5), 6.27 (SD=1.3) days respectively. In general the questionnaire received wellby participants and reliability standards was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha=0.9 and intra-class correlation=0.8). Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) obtained, were 0.7 and 0.8 respectively, which were higher than our selected standards (0.62 and 0.79 respectively). This study of the Iranian version of PSST proved that it is an acceptable, reliable and valid measure of PMS.