title: Effectiveness of involving a nurse specialist for patients with urinary incontinence in primary care: results of a pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Urinary incontinence (UI) primary care management is substandard, offering care rather than cure despite the existence of guidelines that help to improve cure. Involving nurse specialists on incontinence in general practice could be a way to improve care for UI patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We studied whether involving nurse specialists on UI in general practice reduced severity and impact of UI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2005 and 2008 a pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled trial was performed comparing a 1-year intervention by trained nurse specialists with care-as-usual after initial diagnosis and assessment by general practitioners in adult patients with stress, urgency or mixed UI in four Dutch regions (Maastricht, Nijmegen, Helmond, The Hague). Simple randomisation was computer-generated with allocation concealment. Analysis was performed by intention-to-treat principles. Main outcome measure was the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-UI SF) severity sum score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 186 patients followed the intervention and 198 received care-as-usual. Patients in both study groups improved significantly in UI severity and impact on health-related quality of life. After correction for effect modifiers [type of UI, body mass index (BMI)], we found significant differences between groups in favour of the intervention group at 3 months (p = 0.04); no differences were found in the 1-year linear trend (p = 0.15). Patients in the intervention group without baseline anxiety/depression improved significantly better compared with care-as-usual after 1 year (p = 0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Involving nurse specialists in care for UI patients supplementary to general practitioners can improve severity and impact of UI, after correction for effect modifiers. This is also the case in specific situations such as anxiety/depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Care, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands. c.albers@maastrichtuniversity.nl
authors.forename: Pytha C P
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Albers-Heitner
authors.forename: Toine A L M
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Lagro-Janssen
authors.forename: Manuela M A
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Joore
authors.forename: Bary L C M
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Berghmans
authors.forename: Fred F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Nieman
authors.forename: Pieter P L
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Venema
authors.forename: Johan J L
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Severens
authors.forename: Ron R A G
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Winkens
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000451:nursing*