[Developing and Verifying the Validity and Reliability of the Electronic Menopausal Health Screen System].

BACKGROUND: Menopausal women are in a transitional phase between health and sickness. Although the highest standards of menopausal care include clinical assessment and patient education on menopausal symptoms, current practices lack integrated care that aim to prevent chronic diseases for which menopause is a predisposing factor.

PURPOSE: To integrate menopausal disturbances; to evaluate the risk factors for osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes; and to create a reliable and effective electronic menopausal health screen system (EMHSS).

METHODS: The research was conducted in the four stages of assessment and analysis, design, development, and pretest stage in order to explore the effectiveness of the developed EMHSS.

RESULTS: The EMHSS has a high degree of reliability and validity. Analysis found an expert validity of .97~.99, content validity of .99, and test-retest reliabilities of .80~.96 (Pearson's correlation) and .79~.96 (intra-class correlation).

CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The EPMHSS was developed using cross-disciplinary collaboration among nursing staff, medical practitioners, and information engineers in order to screen menopausal women. The EPMHSS provides tailored health education content for patients in a timely manner and compiles historical assessment data that may be referenced by nursing staff when providing health consultations and by physicians when delivering diagnoses and treatment.