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Stress urinary incontinence and quality of life: A reliability study of a condition‐specific instrument in paper and web‐based versions
Author(s) -
Sjöström M.,
Stenlund H.,
Johansson S.,
Umefjord G.,
Samuelsson E.
Publication year - 2012
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.22240
Subject(s) - medicine , cronbach's alpha , urinary incontinence , quality of life (healthcare) , reliability (semiconductor) , intraclass correlation , lower urinary tract symptoms , web application , kappa , physical therapy , psychometrics , urology , clinical psychology , world wide web , nursing , computer science , prostate , power (physics) , linguistics , physics , philosophy , quantum mechanics , cancer
Aims Quality of life is an important outcome measure in studies of urinary incontinence. Electronic collection of data has several advantages. We examined the reliability of the Swedish version of the highly recommended condition‐specific quality of life questionnaire International Consultation on Incontinence Modular Questionnaire‐Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Quality of Life (ICIQ‐LUTSqol), in paper and web‐based formats in women with stress urinary incontinence. Methods Women aged 18–70 years, with stress urinary incontinence at least once weekly, were recruited via the project's website and answered the ICIQ‐LUTSqol questionnaire. Respondents completed either the paper version twice (n = 78), or paper and web‐based versions once each (n = 54). The ICIQ validation protocol was followed. Results The mean interval between answers was 18.1 (SD = 3.1) days in the paper versus paper setting and 15.0 (SD = 7.8) days in the paper versus web‐based setting. Internal consistency was excellent, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.87 for the paper version and 0.86 for the web‐based version. There was a high degree of agreement of overall scores with intraclass correlations in the paper versus paper and paper versus web‐based settings: 0.95 ( P < 0.001) and 0.92 ( P < 0.001), respectively. The mean of each individual item's weighted kappa value was 0.61 in both settings. Conclusions The questionnaire is reliable in women with stress urinary incontinence, and it can be used in either a paper or a web‐based version. Neurourol. Urodynam. 31:1242–1246, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.