Patient preferences for different severities of and treatments for overactive bladder

: Symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB) can have profound effects on women's quality of life. However, quantitative data on how women value these symptoms and their treatments are limited. We sought to assess women's preferences, which are referred to as utilities, for different severities of and treatment options for OAB.

: Eighty women-40 with OAB symptoms and 40 without OAB-were recruited from urogynecology and urology practices at an academic institution from April to November 2009. A single, trained interviewer administered a computerized preference elicitation tool to measure preferences for 4 OAB severity levels (urgency/frequency and mild, moderate, and severe urge incontinence), as well as 3 OAB treatments with and without adverse effects or complications, which included (1) anticholinergic medications, (2) botulinum toxin injection, and (3) sacral neuromodulation. Preferences were assessed using the time trade-off (TTO) method.

: Median TTO scores for OAB decreased as severity increased (urgency/frequency, 0.88; mild, 0.92; moderate, 0.85; severe, 0.73). Median TTO scores assigned to anticholinergic medications were higher (0.93) than those for botulinum (0.88) and sacral neuromodulation (0.85), and adverse effects or complications lowered the utilities for each treatment (anticholinergics, 0.88; botulinum, 0.75; and sacral neuromodulation, 0.78).

: Women view symptoms of OAB, particularly moderate or severe symptoms, as being quite burdensome. The degree of invasiveness and the number of adverse effect/complications are important contributors to the utilities that women assign to the various treatment options.