Cultural and reliable adaptation of the Reproductive Autonomy Scale for women in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To translate and adapt the Reproductive Autonomy Scale to the Brazilian culture and evaluate the reliability of the adapted version. Methods: Methodological study, in which were followed the steps of translation, consensus among judges, back-translation, semantic validation and pre-test. Reliability was checked through internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and temporal stability by using the test-retest (intraclass correlation coefficient). The scale was applied to a sample of 140 women, of which 70 were rural workers of the São Francisco Valley and 70 were quilombola communities of the Identidade Sertão Produtivo Territory, in Brazil. Results: The Reproductive Autonomy Scale was appropriately adapted for the Brazilian culture. The overall Cronbach's alpha of the scale was 0.76, which indicates adequate internal consistency. The reproducibility analysis showed no significant difference in test-retest scores and the ICC value=0.93 for the whole scale indicated excellent reproducibility. Conclusion: The Reproductive Autonomy Scale is appropriate and reliable to evaluate the reproductive autonomy of Brazilian women.