[Validation of a questionnaire for the diagnosis of urinary incontinence]

To validate a questionnaire applied in the Primary Care (PC) clinic which enables urinary incontinence (UI) and its different types to be diagnosed.

A descriptive crossover study.

A Urodynamics hospital out-patients clinic.

Patients referred from PC to be tested for UI by Urodynamics.

A self-filled questionnaire prior to the Urodynamics test to give a rough idea of the type of UI. Analysis of patients' characteristics and the internal validity of the questionnaire by comparing it with the Urodynamics test.

The sample was 59 men and 432 women. For the rough diagnosis of UI caused by straining in women, a five-question survey had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 77.2% for four affirmative replies, which went up to 83% if maximum exterior flow was included. For the UI group arising from anticholinergic treatment, a four-question survey had low PPV (57.6%), but this figure went up to 85.7% with a flowmeter.

A questionnaire to study the type of UI, along with further tests, approached the aetiological diagnosis of incontinence in women. A Urodynamics study, however, always needs to be performed on men.