PURPOSE: We analyzed the correlation between pad usage as determined by objective pad count and the severity of urinary incontinence as measured by pad weight.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study of consecutive incontinent patients who wore pads on a daily basis and were instructed to complete a 24-hour pad test. They were told to use their usual pads, change them as they usually do and place each in a separate plastic bag the day before their scheduled appointment. All pads were weighed and total urine loss was calculated by subtracting the dry pad weight from the wet pad weight assuming that 1 gram of weight increase is equivalent to 1 ml of urine loss. The number of pads was correlated to the pad weight using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient due to the non-parametric nature of the data.
RESULTS: There were 116 patients comprised of 51 men (age range 39-89, mean 66) and 65 women (age range 27-95, mean 72). The Spearman's rho comparing the number of pads used to grams of urine loss was 0.26 (p=0.005) for the total cohort and 0.40 (p< 0.05) and 0.26 (p< 0.05) for males and females, respectively.
CONCLUSION: There was little correlation between number of pads used and severity of urinary incontinence (r = 0.26). This data suggests that pad counts should not be used as an objective measure of incontinence severity and that instead, pad weight on a 24 hour pad test should be utilized.
Written by:
Tsui JF, Shah MB, Weinberger JM, Ghanaat M, Weiss JP, Purohit RS, Blaivas JG. Are you the author?
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY; Institute for Bladder and Prostate Research, New York, NY.
Reference: J Urol. 2013 May 29. pii: S0022-5347(13)04420-0.
doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2013.05.055
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23727311
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