EPA-0632 – Questionnaire on Sexual Attitude and Function 2009: A Novel Clinical and Epidemiological Computer Based Tool

Abstract

Objective:

To study sexual problems of our patients and standardizing it for patients with or without religious and cultural restrains we developed a questionnaire with 240 phrases that were extracted from a pool of 1400 sentences addressing sexual problems. Sixty four scales under four headings (sexual general characteristics, deviations, dysfunctions and psychodynamic syndromes) (16 items each) were evaluated based on criteria of DSM-IV and ICD 10. Five validity scales (honesty, desirability, debasement, guilt feeling and overall validity) were also used for better assessment.

Methods:

A total of 1300 patients in the four variants of the test were evaluated during a time span of 7 years. The questions were presented to examinees at 8^th. Grade and higher in a calm environment and the results were evaluated by a computer software specifically developed for this purpose.

Results:

The last version of the test was completed by 734 patients with excellent compliance. It was of nice politeness and comprehensiveness. For almost all scales the sensitivity and specificity were around 85 and 92% respectively.

Conclusion:

We conclude that QSAF 2009 is an excellent tool both in clinics (diagnosis and follow up) and epidemiology with high sensitivity and specificity. It has also application in cross cultural studies, medico – legal issues and medical documentation. It prevents face to face interviews, breaks patients’ resistance and is less time consuming than scheduled interviews.