Adaptation and Modification of Menstrual Distress Forms for Gwalior Region, India

This study involved the process of adaptation and modification of the Menstrual Distress Forms developed at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. The proposed scales were intended to be used for studying menstrual distress as a part of the researcher’s PhD work in Gwalior, India. Face validity was used initially to receive feedback about the scales from three females in Gwalior. This was also done to find out whether the women would be able to understand the items without much difficulty. Recommendations pertaining to adding, deleting, modifying the items and merging some forms were received. Additionally, considering the English comprehension levels of the local women, it was suggested that the items be translated in Hindi to aid their understanding. Suitable changes were made in the language and structure of the forms and conceptual translations of the items in Hindi were added along with English items. These modified forms were shown to 16 domain experts (doctors, mental health professionals and local women) for their suggestions. The forms were finalized accordingly and rechecked with back-translation. Few items were rephrased. Hindi translations of some items were modified. The original version had four forms which were combined and/or modified to suit the current needs. Form II has been kept intact mostly. Forms I, III and IV were merged for the respondents to rate the items for pre-menstrual days, menstrual days and remaining days, in the columns one beside the other respectively. This new version was named as ‘Modified Menstrual Distress Forms’.