title: Characteristics of patients presenting with LUTS/BPH in six European countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Knowledge of the clinical profile of the population with lower urinary tract symptoms/benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH) is important for health care management, impacting on manpower requirements, pharmacologic demands and health service costs. Data collected by the TransEuropean Research Into the Use of Management Policies for LUTS suggestive of BPH in Primary Health care project were used to profile 4979 patients from six European countries newly presenting with LUTS/BPH to general practitioners or office-based urologists.
  
  
  METHODS
  At recruitment, the clinician completed a questionnaire detailing the treatment provided, examination results, and covariates including age, initial symptom severity and comorbidities. The patient completed an International Prostate Symptom Score/quality-of-life questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of patients (77%) sought medical advice because of the bothersomeness of their symptoms, and presented at ages between 58 and 71 years. Small but statistically significant differences among countries were found in initial symptom severity, initial quality of life and age at diagnosis, but these are not thought to be clinically significant. There were marked national differences in patient management, with, for example, 10% of patients in France reporting no examinations, compared with 0.5% in Poland, while free-flow measurements varied from less than 1% in France to 35% in Poland.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patient heterogeneity does not explain the differences in patient management among countries, which undoubtedly is the result of differences in health care traditions, infrastructure and socioeconomic factors, as well as patient preference.
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Medical School, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom. a.hutchison@surrey.ac.uk
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hutchison
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Farmer
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chapple
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Berges
authors.forename: Ludger
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pientka
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Teillac
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borkowski
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dobronski
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018579:Patient Selection; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D014570:Urologic Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*