The study was intended to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure the psycho-socio-spiritual distress among women suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. This mixed method study, was divided into three phases. Phase I conceptualized spiritual distress in the Muslim population. Phase II involved item generation, inventory development, and pilot testing. Phase III assessed convergent validity by correlating the new scale with the Mental Health Inventory psychological distress subscale, Social Provision Scale (SPS-U), and Muslim Spiritual Attachment Scale (MSAS-U), while divergent validity was examined through factor loading using the Mental Health Inventory psychological well-being subscale. Data was analyzed using SPSS 26. Factor analysis revealed three factors, and the 51-item scale showed strong reliability (α=0.90). Factor 1, representing psychological distress with 19 items, had a Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.89. Factor 2, representing spiritual distress with 15 items, had a reliability of 0.88, and Factor 3, representing social distress with 17 items, had a reliability of 0.87.  The psychological distress subscale was highly correlated with the Mental Health Inventory's distress subscale (p<.001), social distress was negatively correlated with the Social Provision Scale (p<.001), and spiritual distress was negatively correlated with the Muslim Spiritual Attachment Scale (p<.001). Divergent validity was supported, as Mental Health Inventory well-being items loaded only onto a separate factor, confirming the scale's validity. The Multidimensional Distress Inventory for PCOS was found to be a precise and concise 51-item self-reporting tool developed to measure the psycho-socio-spiritual distress among women suffering from PCOS.

Keywords: psychological, social, spiritual, distress, Muslim, women, polycystic ovary syndrome