BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - Urinary tract infection is the most common healthcare-acquired infection in the world, accounting for ∼ 40% of all nosocomial infections.
Although most UTIs are mild and easily resolved with appropriate antibiotic treatment, more severe infections can be devastating, resulting in bacteraemia, sepsis and death. 
Because of the frequency with which they occur, UTIs also impose a substantial economic burden on healthcare systems. Despite the clinical and economic impact of UTIs, there is a surprising lack of data on their effect on quality of life (QoL). This fact was brought to our attention while searching for health-related QoL data to inform a cost – utility analysis developed as part of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline on Infection Prevention and Control.
In cost-utility analyses, measures of health benefit are valued in terms of quality adjusted life years (QALYs). The QALY is a measure of a person's length of life weighted by a valuation of their QoL over that period. The weighting comprises two elements: the description of changes in QoL and an overall valuation of that description. In order to ensure comparability and consistency across appraisals and reduce bias in the selection of values, NICE requires the use of a reference case which recommends that: measurement of changes in QoL should be reported directly from patients; valuation of changes in patients' QoL should be based on public preferences elicited using a choice-based method, such as the time trade-off or standard gamble, but not rating scale, in a representative sample of the UK population; and the use of utility estimates from published literature must be supported by evidence that demonstrates that they have been identified and selected systematically....View or save the full text Mini Review as a .pdf file
|
What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? This study is the only systematic review of quality of life in people with UTI in the literature. Twelve studies were identifi ed which report quality of life using a variety of generic methods; the results of these papers were summarized in a way that is useful for a health researcher seeking to populate a decision model, design a clinical study or assess the effect of UTI on quality of life relative to other conditions. One research group provided previously unpublished data from a large cohort study; these scores were mapped to EuroQol 5-Dimension values using published algorithms and probabilistic simulations. |
Sarah L. Bermingham and Joanna F. Ashe
National Clinical Guideline Centre, Royal College of Physicians, London, UK
More BJUI Mini Reviews and Archives
