Aims: The overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS) is a useful tool for assessing the four key symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB), but it sometimes misrepresents a patient's actual voiding status.
To examine whether the patient-determined OABSS underestimates or overestimates the true status, its results were compared to those of the OABSS derived from a 7-day bladder diary (OABSS-BD).
Methods: Records of patients who visited our outpatient clinic with lower urinary tract symptoms were evaluated retrospectively. The patients were asked to complete the OABSS and the 7-day bladder diary (BD). The OABSS-BD was created from the 7-day BD. Questions were compared between the OABSS and the OABSS-BD.
Results: A total of 44 men and 31 women were evaluated. For daytime frequency, the mean OABSS score was 1.03 ± 0.57 and the OABSS-BD score was 0.69 ± 0.52 (P < 0.01). For nighttime frequency, the mean OABSS score was 2.27 ± 0.84, and the OABSS-BD score was 1.96 ± 1.00 (P = 0.04). For urinary urgency, the mean OABSS score was 2.49 ± 1.83, and the OABSS-BD score was 2.70 ± 1.90 (P = 0.27). For urgency incontinence, the mean OABSS score was 1.67 ± 1.92, and the OABSS-BD score was 1.52 ± 1.87 (P = 0.28). For the total score, the mean OABSS total score was 7.26 ± 3.92, and the OABSS-BD score was 6.98 ± 3.26 (P = 0.23).
Conclusions: The OABSS is a very simple and useful tool. However, compared to the results from the 7-day FVC, the present patients overestimated daytime and nighttime frequency.
Written by:
Hikita KS, Honda M, Hirano S, Kawamoto B, Panagiota T, Muraoka K, Sejima T, Takenaka A. Are you the author?
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan.
Reference: Neurourol Urodyn. 2015 Jan 16. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1002/nau.22719
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25597478