Development of a Bilingual Questionnaire about General Practitioners? Handling of Female Urinary Incontinence

Background: Urinary incontinence is a prevalent symptom among women. In a Danish-German study, the barriers experienced by general practitioners regarding communication about urinary incontinence are identified using a newly developed questionnaire. Objectives: Description of the development and validation of a questionnaire for general practitioners on the topic urinary incontinence. Methods: Investigation of literature and instruments and conduction of qualitative interviews. Development of an initial questionnaire in English language, which was then translated into the target languages, Danish and German. The questionnaire was verified in cognitive interviews, revised and tested for its retest-reliability and linguistic validity. Results: The analysis of the qualitative interviews allowed identification of general practitioners' barriers and insecurities on this topic. Cognitive testing led to a change in 14 questions or answering categories. The evaluation of the retest-reliability showed good or moderate absolute concordance or correlation of 98% of the items. Conclusion: The process of the development of a questionnaire which must suit the different languages and cultural and structural differences of two countries is very complex and time-consuming. Initial results showed a high acceptance of the questionnaire.