BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop and validate the Chinese Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) for assessing overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms and compare it with a 3-day bladder diary.
METHODS: The Chinese OABSS was developed by linguistic validation of the original version. Its reliability and validity and correlations with a 3-day bladder diary were tested on patients with OAB in a multicenter study conducted in Taiwan (the RESORT study).
RESULTS: A total of 60 patients with OAB, either incontinent (OAB wet, n=31) or continent (OAB dry, n=29), were enrolled consecutively in this study. The test-retest reliability of the Chinese OABSS was moderate to good, with weighted kappa coefficients of 0.515-0.721 for each symptom score and 0.610 for the total symptom score. Each symptom score correlated positively with the total OABSS (Spearman's rho 0.365-0.793) and was internally consistent (Cronbach's alpha 0.674). The distribution of the OABSS showed a clear separation between OAB wet (average 11.4, range 7-15) and OAB dry (average 7.97, range 4-10) subgroups (Wilcoxon exact test, p< 0.05). In addition, the OABSS items correlated positively with the corresponding bladder diary variables (Spearman's rho 0.504-0.879) and the degrees of agreement improved with study visits except for nighttime frequency. The Chinese OABSS tended to underestimate the frequency of nighttime voiding.
CONCLUSION: The Chinese OABSS has been developed and validated as a reliable instrument for assessing OAB symptoms. OABSS can be an alternative to, but not a replacement for, a 3-day bladder diary for assessing patients.
Written by:
Hung MJ, Chou CL, Yen TW, Chuang YC, Meng E, Huang ST, Kuo HC. Are you the author?
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chung Shan Medical University School of Medicine, Taichung, Taiwan.
Reference: J Formos Med Assoc. 2013 May;112(5):276-82.
doi: 10.1016/j.jfma.2011.09.020
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23660224
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