Comparison between urinary diaries completed with and without intensive patient instructions

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Gynecology
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Accurate assessment of urinary symptoms is crucial for evaluating patients with incontinence.
• The 7-day urinary diary is a reproducible method for collecting urinary symptom data.
• The optimal implementation strategy for urinary diaries remains unclear, with conventional methods involving intensive pre-evaluation instructions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if a urinary diary completed before an initial clinical evaluation with minimal instructions yields comparable symptom data to conventional methods.
• To assess the reliability of a "Minimal Instruction Diary" versus an "Intensive Instruction Diary" in capturing urinary symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Two hundred seventy-eight women with urinary incontinence participated in three clinical trials.
• All subjects completed a "Minimal Instruction Diary" before their initial clinical evaluation.
• Subjects then completed an "Intensive Instruction Diary" after the clinical evaluation and received detailed instructions.

Main Results:

• Pearsons' correlation coefficients between the two diary methods ranged from 0.67 to 0.78 for various urinary symptoms.
• A statistically significant decline in reported nocturnal voluntary micturitions was observed from the Minimal to the Intensive Instruction Diary.
• No demographic or urodynamic factors explained this difference in reporting nocturnal voids.

Conclusions:

• The 7-day urinary diary is a reliable tool for assessing urinary symptoms and can be effectively utilized prior to the initial clinical evaluation.
• The practicality and ease of use of the Minimal Instruction Diary suggest its potential for wider application in patient populations.
• This approach simplifies data collection, potentially improving patient compliance and diagnostic efficiency in managing urinary incontinence.