Development and Validation of A Decision-Making Donor Conception Questionnaire in Iranian Infertile Couples

The present study was conducted to develop a decision-making questionnaire for selecting donor conception and assess its psychometric properties in Iranian infertile couples. This scale development study was conducted based on De Vellis’ method (2012) in four steps at Milad Infertility Clinic in Mashhad, Iran. The dimensions of the concept of decision-making were determined in the first step based on the qualitative results obtained from 38 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Items appropriate for the questionnaire were developed in the second step using the qualitative data and a review of literature. In the third step, the research team reviewed and eliminated some of the items. The fourth step evaluated the face, content and construct validity of the questionnaire through exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 220 infertile couples using convenience sampling and also its initial and final reliability. Based on the results of the qualitative study, a pool of 170 items was developed, 101 of which were eliminated after revision due to being ambiguous or repeated or due to their poor face and content validity and initial reliability. The questionnaire was evaluated for its construct validity with 69 items. After the exploratory factor analysis, the DMDCQ was finalized with 51 items and seven factors. All the factors had Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.75-0.87 and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) greater than 0.7. This study led to the development of a valid and reliable scale for examining infertile couples’ decision-making about whether or not to use donor conception and the determinants of this decision.