Gathering the data
All the studies used more than one method to collect data and
included postal surveys, interviews using validated assessment
tools, gynaecological examination and a review of the
medical notes. Questionnaires were used in all the studies,
either by the women being asked face to face in a structured
or semi-structured interview setting, or by using a paper and
pen survey that was posted to the respondents. Both face to
face interviews and self-report questionnaires were used by
Andersen and Hacker (1983), Weijmar Schultz et al. (1986),
Van de Wiel et al. (1990a, b), Willibrord et al. (1990) and
Corney et al. (1992). The only studies that involved postal
surveys without interviewing the respondents were those
undertaken by Thuesen et al. (1992), Green et al. (2000) and
Likes et al. (2007).
The range of questionnaires used was diverse. For example
in the Danish studies, the questionnaire was formulated by
Moth et al. (1983) who incorporated some questions from
the Danish Sexological questionnaire. It was not clear how
the questionnaire had been developed or if it had been
piloted, as neither these details or the number of questions
used were included in the report, giving rise to concerns
about its reliability and validity. In contrast