title: Core lower urinary tract symptom score questionnaire: a psychometric analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the core lower urinary symptom score questionnaire with psychometric methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study included 140 women and 125 men who filled in a core lower urinary symptom score questionnaire while attending two lectures on lower urinary tract symptoms. Missing response rates to individual questions were 1.5-5.3%. After the descriptive analyses including box plot, Cronbach's α coefficients and Spearman's ρ were calculated for reliability and validity assessment, respectively. Factor analysis was also carried out to explore the underlying structure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the scores for 10 core symptoms, the interquartile range for pain in the bladder and urethra was 0 in both sexes, and that for stress incontinence was 0 in men. Cronbach's α of the core lower urinary symptom score was 0.733 in women and 0.721 in men. Questions regarding daytime frequency, nocturia, urgency and urgency urinary incontinence, and those on slow stream, straining and feeling of incomplete emptying were significantly correlated with each other in both sexes. Pain in the urethra and bladder showed more extensive associations in women than in men. Factor analysis showed four components in both sexes: the first was storage symptoms, second was voiding symptoms, third was pain and the fourth was urinary incontinence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The core lower urinary symptom score questionnaire shows good reliability and validity for both sexes, and it could be used as screening tool for lower urinary tract symptoms in any clinical setting or epidemiological investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Hospital Organization Higashi Nagoya Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Kikuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Kyosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Aota
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D059411:Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: core lower urinary tract symptom score; psychometric analysis; reliability; validity