PARIS, FRANCE (UroToday.com) - Patients with overactive bladder (OAB) were surveyed to determine the impact of their disease on health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in a community setting.
A registry-based research panel of patients with chronic diseases was utilized to recruit survey participants in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA. Existing panel members were invited to participate in the online survey that included questions assessing treatment utilization patterns, patient attitudes towards OAB and validated disease-specific measures. Respondents were screened for eligibility; criteria included age ≥18 years, urinating ≥5-8 times/24 hours (varied by country) and wetting/leakage episodes in the past month. HR-QOL was assessed using the disease-specific King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ), score range 0 [no effect] – 100 [affects a lot] and the Incontinence Quality of Life questionnaire (I-QOL), score range 0 [extreme effect] – 100 [no effect].
A total of 58,128 subjects were screened, 1882 met the inclusion criteria, and 1217 completed the survey (mean age 49 years; female 81%; neurogenic OAB 9.4%). Mean duration of bladder symptoms was 7.75 years and mean total number of voids per 24 hours was 11.1 (nighttime voids, 3.4); 62.0% of patients experienced ≥4 wetting/leakage incidents in the past month. Almost half (46.4%) of patients had never taken prescription medication to treat their bladder symptoms, 29.5% of patients were currently taking medication and 24.1% had taken prescription medication for bladder symptoms in the past but had lapsed from care. OAB negatively impacted HR-QOL (see table). Due to the data collection method (anonymous web survey), a limitation of this study is that a selection bias cannot be ruled out.
Health-Related Quality of Life
| King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) symptom component scoresa | |
| General Health | 40.57 |
| Incontinence Impact | 49.05 |
| Role Limitations | 37.72 |
| Physical Limitations | 42.95 |
| Social Limitations | 31.60 |
| Personal Relationships | 32.51 |
| Emotions | 36.72 |
| Sleep/Energy | 42.70 |
| Severity Measures | 48.52 |
| Bladder Problems | 1.26 |
| Incontinence Quality of Life (I-QOL) scoresb | |
| Avoidance/Limiting Behavior | 54.11 |
| Psychosocial Impacts | 65.84 |
| Social Embarrassment | 52.91 |
| Overall mean | 58.64 |
Values are mean.
aKHQ: Individual scores (with the exception of Bladder Problems, scale: 1 [affects a little] to 3 [affects a lot]) were transformed into a scale from 0 to 100. A higher score indicates lower QOL (0 = no effect; 100 = affects a lot)
bI-QOL: Individual scores were transformed into a scale from 0 to 100. A higher score indicates better incontinence-related QOL (0 = extreme effect; 100 = no effect)
Disease-specific HR-QOL questionnaire scores from an international online survey of patients with OAB showed that OAB has a negative impact on quality of life and yet may be undertreated.
Presented by Dmochowski R,1 Mehnert U,2 Sussman DO,3 MacDiarmid S,4 Globe D,5 Signori M6at the 27th Annual European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress - February 24 - 28, 2012 - Le Palais des Congrès de Paris, Paris, France
1Vanderbilt University, Dept. of Urologic Surgery, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, 2Balgrist University Hospital, Dept. of Neuro-Urology, Spinal Cord Injury Center, Zurich, Switzerland, 3Delaware Valley Urology, Sewell, New Jersey, and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Dept. of Urology, Stratford, New Jersey, United States of America, 4Alliance Urology Specialists, Dept. of Urology, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America, 5Allergan, Inc., Global Health Outcomes Strategic Research, Irvine, California, United States of America, 6Allergan, Inc., Global Strategic Marketing, Irvine, California, United States of America
View EAU 2012 Annual Meeting Coverage
