Comparison of questionnaires used for the evaluation of patients with chronic pelvic pain

Comparison of questionnaires for the evaluation of symptoms and QoL in patients with CPPS.

The MPQ-DLV, PDI, NIH-CPSI, ICSI, and PUF, were compared for: pain, bladder complaints, and for QoL.

The studied group N = 26 (male: 16; female: 10) showed a good distribution in gender for the age (MW-U: P = 0.6) and BMI (MW-U: P = 0.5). The intraclass correlation (ICC) for pain intensity of MPQ-NWC and MPQ-PRIT was 0.55. The ICC's, for other different pain intensity scores were mostly <0.25 (global = 0.23). For bladder complaints a positive global score (ICC = 0.64) was shown, with the score for NIH-CPSI and ICSI > 0.77. The ICC for NIH-CPSI and PUF-SS was the lowest (=0.48). The QoL showed a global bad correlation (ICC ≤ 0.27) with MPQ-DLV-QoL/PDI, PDI/ICPI, PDI/PUF-BS and ICPI/PUF-BS scoring >0.5.

When the most used questionnaires for QoL assessment in patients with CPPS are compared, very different results can be found. This indicates that results from one questionnaire cannot be used for overall conclusions concerning pain intensity and QoL. For bladder symptoms the results seem to correspond better. To develop one generally accepted questionnaire would facilitate the interpretation and comparison of data in this condition.