To compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and pelvic pain levels over time in patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) and those with other pelvic pain conditions (OPPC) including chronic prostatitis, dyspareunia, vaginismus, vulvodynia, and vulvar vestibulitis.
We prospectively enrolled male and female patients from any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) center in the US. They completed the Genitourinary Pain Index (GUPI) quantifying urologic HRQOL and the 12-Item Short Form Survey version 2 (SF-12) quantifying general HRQOL at enrollment and 1 year later. Participants were classified by ICD diagnosis codes and confirmed by chart review to be IC/BPS or OPPC (308 and 85 patients respectively).
At baseline and follow-up, IC/BPS patients, on average, had worse urologic and general HRQOL than OPPC patients. IC/BPS patients demonstrated improvement in urologic HRQOL measures over the study but demonstrated no significant change in any general HRQOL measure suggesting a condition-specific impact. Patients with OPPC demonstrated similar improvements in urologic HRQOL but had deteriorating mental health and general HRQOL at follow-up suggesting a wider general HRQOL impact for these diseases.
We found that patients with IC/BPS had worse urologic HRQOL compared to other pelvic conditions. Despite this, IC/BPS showed stable general HRQOL over time, suggesting a more condition-specific impact on HRQOL. OPPC patients showed deteriorating general HRQOL, suggesting more widespread pain symptoms in these conditions.
Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland). 2023 May 25*** epublish ***
Andrew R Cunningham, Lin Gu, Alexandra Dubinskaya, Amanda M De Hoedt, Kamil E Barbour, Jayoung Kim, Stephen J Freedland, Jennifer T Anger
Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, United States., Durham VA Health Care System, Veterans Health Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Durham, NC, United States., Department of Urology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States., Division of Population Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, United States., Department of Urology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.