Accuracy of the Menopause Rating Scale and the Menopause Quality of Life Questionnaire to discriminate menopausal women with anxiety and depression

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and the Menopause Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL) to discriminate women suffering from anxiety (AD) and depression disorder (DD). Methods: A cohort of 416 women aged 45 to 65 years (51.7 +/- 3.8) completed the MRS, MENQOL and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, plotting receiver operator curves to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the MRS and MENQOL items related to anxiety and depression. Results: Both the MRS6 (area under the ROC curve [AUC] 0.773, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.721-0.824) and MENQOL5 (AUC: 0.772, 95% CI 0.723-0.822) proved to be accurate tools to identify individuals with anxiety or with a likelihood to develop AD. Likewise, the items MRS4 (AUC: 0.771, 95% CI 0.625-0.797) and MENQOL8 (AUC: 0.744, 95% CI 0.668-0.821) appeared to be suitable to discriminate individuals with DD. Two cut-off points were established for each item in the different scales to optimize their capacity to detect and discriminate problems of anxiety and depression. Lower cut-off values (MRS >= 1; MENQOL >= 2) were established to detect AD and DD, the sensitivity of which varied between 76.0% and 84.6%% and a negative predictive value varying between 86.7% and 95.3%. A more specific cut-off was established for the discrimination of AD and DD (MRS >= 2; MENQOL >= 7), with a specificity ranging from 86.2% to 99.4% and a positive predictive value varying between 68.6% and 92.6%. Conclusions: The MRS and MENQOL display moderate accuracy in discriminating menopausal women with symptoms of anxiety and depression. The intensity of the symptoms appears to be related to the probability of detecting a probable or definitive disorder.