Psychometric properties of the Dutch London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy for pregnant people and their partners

Abstract

ContextIt is often unclear what constitutes an unplanned or unintended pregnancy, and pregnancy intentions may be multidimensional dynamic. The London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) measures pregnancy intentions in a manner close to the actual experience. The aim of this study is to establish a Dutch version of the LMUP (LMUP-NL) and to evaluate the reliability and validity of this version for both people who were pregnant and their partners, whatever the pregnancy outcome.MethodsA psychometric evaluation of the LMUP using observational data from the BluePrInt study and the RISE UP study was conducted with 1201 people (839 people who were pregnant and 362 partners), aged between 16-55 years. The LMUP-NL was translated based using the Flemish LMUP and the UK 2020 update, resulting in a version for people who were pregnant and one for partners. Next, the acceptability, readability, reliability, construct and convergent validity were analyzed, combining Principal Component analysis, Confirmatory Factor analysis and Mokken scale analyses.ResultsThe LMUP-NL demonstrated to be readable and reliable (Cronbach’s alpha >0.80 for both versions). Construct validity of both versions was acceptable (CFI>0.93) and Mokken scale analyses indicated a strong scale (H-coefficient:0.68).ConclusionsThe LMUP-NL is reliable and valid for people who were pregnant and their partners, regardless of the pregnancy outcome. It offers researchers and policy makers an instrument suitable to measure pregnancy intention in a multidimensional manner, constituting a closer reflection of the actual experience of pregnancy intentions.

‘I was an accident’. Long-term effects of unintended pregnancy on children: Findings from the Dutch prospective birth-cohort Amsterdam Born Children and their Development study

“…In the current study's context, people who carried a strongly unwanted pregnancy may have chosen to terminate this pregnancy, and therefore were not part of the current study sample. People who had an abortion, indeed reported more pregnancy unintendedness compared to people who chose to carry an unintended pregnancy to term in the Netherlands in a previous study (35). We do not know what the results would have been if these highly unwanted pregnancies were carried to term, and hence part of this study.…”

“…This might also be explained by the retrospective measurement of the pregnancy intention dimensions in the current study. As the pregnancy continutes, people tend to perceive their pregnancy to be more wanted and state to be more happy with their pregnancy (35,36).…”