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Comparison of two questionnaires for assessing the severity of urinary incontinence: The ICIQ‐UI SF versus the incontinence severity index
Author(s) -
Klovning Atle,
Avery Kerry,
Sandvik Hogne,
Hunskaar Steinar
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
neurourology and urodynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1520-6777
pISSN - 0733-2467
DOI - 10.1002/nau.20674
Subject(s) - medicine , kappa , urinary incontinence , cohen's kappa , physical therapy , urology , statistics , mathematics , geometry
Aims To compare the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire‐Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ‐UI SF) with the Incontinence Severity Index (ISI), and to propose intervals for four severity levels of ICIQ‐UI SF. Methods Cross‐sectional, Internet‐based study of 1,812 women responding to a general health questionnaire. Four severity levels for the ICIQ‐UI SF scores were constructed by iteratively adjusting the ranges for these levels until maximum Kappa scores were obtained when cross‐tabulated with the ISI in a random sample of half of the women with urinary incontinence. Using these intervals, weighted Kappa was calculated for the remaining women as a validation process. Results Three hundred forty‐three women had urinary incontinence, and completed the ISI and the ICIQ‐UI SF. A high correlation between the ISI and ICIQ‐UI SF scores with versus without the QoL item was found (Spearman's rho = 0.62, P < 0.01 vs. rho = 0.71, P < 0.01, respectively). Maximum Kappa with quadratic weighting was obtained for the following scale for the ICIQ‐UI SF: slight (1–5), moderate (6–12), severe (13–18) and very severe (19–21) (Kappa = 0.61), and without the QoL item: slight (1–3), moderate (4–5), severe (6–9) and very severe (10–11) (Kappa = 0.71) in the development sample. Correspondingly, for the validating sample, maximum Kappa with quadratic weighting was 0.61 and 0.74. Conclusions A high correlation between the ICIQ‐UI SF and the ISI was found. The ICIQ‐UI SF may be divided into the following four severity categories: slight (1–5), moderate (6–12), severe (13–18) and very severe (19–21). Neurourol. Urodynam. 28:411–415, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.