Development and Validation of an Acceptability and Satisfaction Questionnaire for a Contraceptive Vaginal Ring, NuvaRing(R)

Objective: To validate an acceptability questionnaire for NuvaRing(R), a new combined contraceptive vaginal ring. Methods: A 21-item questionnaire was developed covering: ease of ring use, ease of package use, clarity of instructions, sexual comfort, cycle-related characteristics, compliance and satisfaction. A total of 2145 women completed the questionnaire after 3, 6 or 13 cycles of NuvaRing(R) use. The psychometric properties and predictive value of the questionnaire were assessed using cycle 3 data (n = 1950). The quality of completed questionnaires, item content analysis, construct validity, internal consistency reliability, known groups validity and predictive validity were evaluated. Results: Excluding non-ordinal items, 0.6% of the data were missing. Principal component analysis of 15 ordinal items indicated that two hypothesised dimensions ( Conclusions: The acceptability questionnaire has good psychometric properties and can predict early discontinuation of the NuvaRing(R) vaginal ring method of contraception.