Does condition-specific quality of life correlate with generic health-related quality of life and objective incontinence severity in women with stress urinary incontinence?
OBJECTIVE
We examined the impact of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) on health-related quality of life (QOL) and evaluated the relationships between incontinence-specific QOL and objective disease severity.


METHODS
A total of 158 women (mean age 49.9) suffering from SUI were included in the study. The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) and the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) were used to assess QOL in the patient and control groups.


RESULTS
The SF-36 scores did not show any significant differences between the two groups except for one domain (physical functioning, P = 0.005). The patient KHQ scores were significantly lower than those of the controls (P < 0.001 for all domains). The scores of the KHQ domains correlated with those of the SF-36 domains, but the relationship was low to moderate, ranging from -0.033 to -0.686. However, they did not correlate with Valsalva leak point pressure (VLPP). When patients were divided into the low VLPP group (n = 60) and the higher VLPP group (n = 98), statistically significant differences were found between the groups for general health domains of the SF-36 (P = 0.010) and of the KHQ (P = 0.027). No statistically significant differences were found in other domains of both questionnaires.


CONCLUSIONS
The generic QOL instrument is not a sensitive tool for measuring QOL in women with SUI. In addition, our findings suggest that objective disease severity is not associated with generic or incontinence-specific QOL.
Oh
Seung-June
SJ
Department of Urology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Ku
Ja Hyeon
JH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016496:Incontinence Pads; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D014563:Urodynamics