Health related quality of life in patients with bladder exstrophy: a call for targeted interventions

Research on health related quality of life in patients with bladder exstrophy has demonstrated mixed results compared to population samples. Few studies have had a comparison group with a urological disorder and none correlated body image to health related quality of life. We compared health related quality of life in patients with bladder exstrophy to that in patients with kidney stones and correlated body image to health related quality of life in the bladder exstrophy population.

Participants included 24 patients with kidney stones and 24 with bladder exstrophy. Patient age was 8 to 25 years. Participants completed the PedsQL (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory) and the 25-item multiple choice UBIQ (Urological Body Image Questionnaire), which was created for the current study.

Compared to patients with kidney stones those with bladder exstrophy indicated significantly higher scores on physical functioning (p = 0.0005) and overall health related quality of life (p = 0.02) in the 8 to 17-year-old cohort. When health related quality of life was compared to body image in patients with bladder exstrophy, lower social scores were associated with those who worried about friends finding out about the condition (p = 0.01) and about having romantic relationships (p = 0.003). Lower social (p = 0.006) and emotional (p = 0.009) functioning scores were associated with patients who thought that they were less likely to have romantic relationships.

The finding that patients with bladder exstrophy had a better physical functioning score than those with kidney stones is not surprising, given the morbidity of active stone disease. The negative correlations with body image in the bladder exstrophy population may be due to the possibility of others discovering the condition and the perceived likelihood of not having romantic relationships.