# Assessment of sexual and body esteem in postpartum women with or without perineal laceration: a cross-sectional study with cultural translation and validation of the Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale

## TL;DR

This study validated a questionnaire to assess sexual and body esteem in postpartum women, finding it reliable and useful for identifying factors linked to perineal laceration.

## Contribution

The study provides a culturally validated version of the VSBE scale for Brazilian Portuguese and identifies its psychometric properties and associations with perineal laceration.

## Key findings

- The VSBE scale showed high internal consistency and good structural and discriminant validity.
- VSBE total score and urinary incontinence were significantly associated with perineal laceration.
- Women with perineal laceration were older and had more dyspareunia and previous surgeries.

## Abstract

We aimed to translate and determine cultural validity of the Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale (VSBE) for Brazilian Portuguese language in postpartum women who underwent vaginal delivery with or without perineal laceration and cesarean section.

A cross-sectional study conducted virtually, with online data collection through a survey with 234 postpartum women of 975 that were invited. Clinical, sociodemographic, and psychometric variables from the VSBE questionnaire were analyzed (content validity index, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct/structural and discriminant validity). Multivariate analysis was performed to explore associated factors with the presence of perineal laceration.

One-hundred fifty-eight women experienced vaginal delivery, of which 24.79% had an intact perineum, 33.33% had perineal laceration, and 9.4% underwent episiotomy; and 76 participants had cesarean sections. Women with perineal laceration were older, presented dyspareunia and previous surgeries than women without perineal laceration (p<0.05). For VSBE, a high internal consistency (Cronbach's α > 0.7) was observed, but it did not correlate with Body Attractiveness Questionnaire and Female Sexual Function Index; however, it correlated with the presence of women sutured for perineal laceration. Moreover, VSBE presented good structural validity with two loading factors after exploratory factor analysis. VSBE also demonstrated discriminant validity between the presence or absence of perineal laceration. The presence of urinary incontinence (UI) (OR=2.716[1.015-4.667];p=0.046) and a higher VSBE total score (OR=1.056[1.037-1.075];p<0.001) were the only factors associated with perineal laceration.

Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale demonstrated appropriate translation and good internal consistency, discriminant/construct validity and reliability. Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale total score and presence of UI were associated with women that underwent perineal laceration.