The urgency perception score: validation and test-retest

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Clinical assessment
• Patient-reported outcomes

Background:

• Urinary urgency is a common and bothersome symptom.
• Current methods for assessing urinary urgency are often limited to simple yes/no questions.
• A more nuanced grading system is needed for better clinical evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a novel grading system for urinary urgency, termed the urgency perception score.
• To assess the content validity, discriminant validity, and test-retest reliability of the new scoring system.

Main Methods:

• A validation study involving 225 subjects (normal volunteers, patients with lower urinary tract symptoms, and patients with overactive bladder).
• A fixed-format questionnaire with a 5-graded response system was used.
• Statistical analyses included chi-square tests, ANOVA, intraclass correlation coefficients, and kappa coefficients.

Main Results:

• The urgency perception score demonstrated good test-retest reliability (ICC=0.86, Kappa=0.68, p <0.001).
• Patients with overactive bladder scored significantly higher than normal subjects and those with lower urinary tract symptoms (p <0.001).
• The system showed good discriminant validity across the studied groups.

Conclusions:

• The urgency perception score is a valid and reliable method for grading urinary urgency.
• This graded system provides a more clinically useful assessment compared to binary urgency characterization.
• The score is suitable for use in questionnaires and patient diaries for improved clinical utility.