Background and objective: The aim was to validate the Spanish version of the Self-Esteem and Relationship Questionnaire (SEAR), specific for patients with erectile dysfunction (ED), and based on the concept of self-esteem, for use in research and clinical practice in Spain.
Patients and method: Observational, prospective, multisite, study comparing patients with ED (IIEF questionnaire score < 26 points), with a score (3/4) 16 points in the Self-Esteem domain of the SEAR questionnaire and undergoing treatment with sildenafil (group A), and healthy control subjects without ED. Patients with ED were assessed at baseline and after 3 months' treatment.
Results: Among 586 evaluable subjects (504 patients with ED and 82 health subjects) the questionnaire showed: a) adequate feasibility with a percentage of patients without response < 5%; b) adequate reliability with Cronbach alpha coefficients for the total and all domains (Sexual-Relationship, Confidence, Self-Esteem, and Overall-Relationship), of SEAR questionnaire, respectively: 0.92, 0.89, 0.84, 0.75, and 0.82 un patients, and 0.86, 0.80, 0.73, 0.56 and 0.74 un healthy subjects; c) adequate discriminatory validity between patients and healthy subjects (Mann-Whitney test, p < 0.0001), and between patients with vaying degrees of ED (Kruskall-Wallis test, p < 0.05); d) adequate convergent/divergent validity (correlations > 0.5 with the IIEF questionnaire and r > 0.3 and < 0.5 with Mental Health domain score of SF-12 questionnaire); e) adequate construct validity, obtaining 2 domains: Sexual-Relationship, and Confidence, and f) adequate sensitivity to clinical changes (SES: 2.1/SRM: 1.5/SEM: 4.4/MID: 13.1). Mark scores were estimated.
Conclusions: The Spanish version of the SEAR questionnaire showed adequate and similar psychometric properties to those shown with the original English version.