COMPARISON OF UWIN SCORE WITH INTERNATIONAL PROSTATIC SYMPTOM SCORE IN PATIENTS WITH LOWER URINARY TRACT SYMPTOMS

BACKGROUND Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease causing bothersome symptoms. The AUA Symptom Index or the identical IPSS is recommended for symptom assessment in each patient presenting with BPH. Though it has been validated it requires some explanation, especially for people with limited education. In this study, we evaluated the agreement and correlation between IPSS and UWIN to determine whether the reduced questionnaire could reliably be used instead of IPSS. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 300 patients with LUTS completed the IPSS and UWIN questionnaire. The patients feel about the two questionnaires, i. e. easy understanding, ability to fill without help, literacy of the patient, time taken, completeness of information were also recorded. Statistical analysis was performed; the scores of each participant on AUA-SS (range 0 to 35) and UWIN (range 0 to 12) were calculated and evaluated using Spearman's correlation coefficients. Bland-Altman plots were also used into determining whether UWIN and IPSS total scores were in agreement. RESULTS The Spearman correlation coefficient was calculated for both the scores (Table 3), i. e. the IPSS and UWIN score and it was 0.913 (p<0.0001) which states that both the scoring system are in good correlation. Bland Altman plot of IPSS vs. UWIN showed that both the system were said to be in agreement if the values plotted are within the confidence limit. The pre-treatment IPSS and UWIN score were in good agreement for the 300 participants (Fig. 4). Similarly, the post-treatment IPSS and UWIN score were also in good agreement. The time taken for filling up the charts for IPSS score was average of 18 minutes (14-26 minutes). The time taken for filling up the charts for UWIN score was average of 10 minutes (8-18 minutes). CONCLUSIONS In daily clinical practice the use of patient's questionnaires can be limited by questionnaire length and the burden that it places on the respondent to read, understand and answer all questions. Our study has shown that the UWIN scoring system for LUTS is equivalent to the gold standard IPSS.