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Psychometric evaluation of the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-q) for measuring quality of life and clinical implications in Greek patients with overactive bladder

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Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis

The Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-q) measures overactive bladder patients’ severity of symptoms and their impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to validate the OAB-q in Greek patients with overactive bladder and report clinical implications of the disease.

Methods

In total, 107 patients were recruited consecutively in our clinic. They completed the OAB-q and Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) twice, 3 months apart. Simultaneously, they initiated lifestyle changes and drug therapy. The reliability of OAB-q was estimated by its internal consistency (Cronbach’s α). Validity was estimated by criterion validity and concurrent validity by comparison with SF-36.

Results

The sample's mean age was 62.1 years, and 74.8% were women. Cronbach’s α exceeded the 0.7 threshold in all OAB-q subscales, implying good reliability of internal consistency for the OAB-q. In addition, moderate (Pearson’s r > 0.3) or strong (r > 0.5) correlations were observed between OAB-q subscales and the relevant SF-36 subscales, implying concurrent validity. Clinically, urgency incontinence affected symptom bother (p = 0.001), concern/worry (p = 0.031) and social interaction (p = 0.027). Nocturia had the largest impact on HRQoL in patients with overactive bladder, as it affected all the OAB-q subscales (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

The Greek version of the OAB-q has shown strong psychometric properties of reliability and validity in our study. Urgency incontinence and especially nocturia seem to affect the HRQoL of patients with overactive bladder. OAB-q is valid for Greek patients with overactive bladder and can be used for clinical and academic purposes.

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Abbreviations

OAB-q:

Overactive Bladder Questionnaire

SF-36:

Short Form-36 questionnaire

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Acknowledgements

We thank the patients who kindly participated in the study. We could not have done it without them.

Contributions Stavros Kontogiannis: Project development, data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing/editing.

Anastasios Athanasopoulos: Project development and manuscript editing.

Michail Tsagkarakis: Data collection and data analysis.

Nikolaos Kontodimopoulos: Project development, data analysis, manuscript editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, University Hospital of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Stavros Kontogiannis, Anastasios Athanasopoulos & Michail Tsagkarakis

  2. School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    Stavros Kontogiannis & Nikolaos Kontodimopoulos

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  1. Stavros Kontogiannis
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  2. Anastasios Athanasopoulos
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  3. Michail Tsagkarakis
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Correspondence to Stavros Kontogiannis.

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Financial disclaimers/Conflict of interest

Stavros Kontogiannis declares that he has no conflict of interest. Anastasios Athanasopoulos has received research grants from Astellas, Pfizer, Lilly and Alergan and speaker honoraria from Astellas, Pfizer, Lilly, Alergan, Meditrina, Galenika and Ranbaxy. Michail Tsagkarakis declares that he has no conflict of interest. Nikolaos Kontodimopoulos declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This work has been presented as an e-Poster Presentation at the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Continence Society in Philadelphia, PA, USA, on 28–31 August 2018.

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Kontogiannis, S., Athanasopoulos, A., Tsagkarakis, M. et al. Psychometric evaluation of the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-q) for measuring quality of life and clinical implications in Greek patients with overactive bladder. Int Urogynecol J 33, 3035–3043 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-021-04991-9

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