Measuring unintended pregnancies in postpartum Iranian women: validation of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy

Research suggests a relatively sizable rate of unintended pregnancies in some subgroups of Iranian women, but there is no concise, standard scale to measure the pregnancy intention of Iranian women. Therefore, the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) were investigated. The Persian version of the LMUP was tested on randomly selected married women aged 15–49 years in the city of Ajabshir, East Azerbaijan province, north-west of Islamic Republic of Iran. The scale’s face validity and internal consistency was examined and its construct validity was tested by exploratory factor analysis. The internal consistency of the scale was acceptable (Cronbach alpha coefficient 0.87). Structural indicators of the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure (0.85) and Bartlett test of sphericity (P < 0.001) verified interpretability of the exploratory factor analysis output. Applicability of the Persian version of the LMUP is accepted. Further investigation is needed to understand cultural norms that might influence Iranian women’s responses to queries about pregnancy intentions.