ZEG Berlin GmbH

Zentrum für Epidemiologie und Gesundheitsforschung

Testing the scale

Does the QRS meet our objectives?

The raw QRS 40-item scale was applied in a population panel in Germany aged 45 to 70.  The panel comprised of a representative sample of the German population in terms of age, sex, regional structure, health and healthcare indicators.  A total of 1,200 men and women (stratified into three age groups) were invited to complete the questionnaire, 

The overall response rate was 68%, and 738 questionnaires were sufficiently complete to be entered into the database. Based on these questionnaires, 4 factors or domains were identified using factorial analysis.  These domains explained about 50% of the total variance in the database 9:

  • Domain 1: ‘Psycho-somatic quality of life’
  • Domain 2: ‘Sexual activity’
  • Domain 3: ‘Sexual (dys-) function – as self-reflection’
  • Domain 4: ‘Sexual (dys-) function – partner’s view’

The items belonging to each of the five domains seems reasonable from biological understanding and basically confirm the conceptional framework.

9. Heinemann LAJ, Potthoff P, Heinemann K, Pauls A, Ahlers CJ, Saad F. Scale for Quality of Sexual Function (QSF) as an outcome measure for both genders? J Sexual Med 2005;2:82-95.