Validation of the female sexual desire functional short scale

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Female sexual desire dysfunction is prevalent and negatively impacts sexual function and quality of life, but there are no functional scales that take into account both function and dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: To construct and validate a short scale for functional evaluation of female sexual desire. METHODOLOGY: Correlation of sexual desire function results assessed by the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the new functional scale in an Internet sample of general Brazilian female population using Student's T test and Spearman coefficient. ROC curve fostered corroborating analysis between data from FSFI desire dysfunction domain with the new functional assessment scale. RESULTS: Half of the subects in the sample had sexual dysfunction according to FSFI, and one third had sexual desire dysfunction. There was a good correlation between results on the new scale and the FSFI sexual desire domain, as well as good sensitivity and specificity of the model according to the ROC curve. CONCLUSION: The new short functional rating scale for female sexual desire based on the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health can be a useful tool in assessing the function of female sexual desire.