Classification of female urinary incontinence by the scored incontinence questionnaire

Objectives: Our purpose was to investigate whether urinary incontinence (UI) severity could be graded by UI scores. Methods: The study included 168 UI patients diagnosed by conventional procedures as stress incontinence (SI, n = 108) or urge incontinence (URI, n = 60). A questionnaire containing 15 items scored for stress-score (s-s) and urge-score (u-s) was administered to patients to assess the correlation between pad test values (PTVs) and s-s in SI and u-s in URI. Results: Significant correlations were found between log[PTVs] and both s-s and u-s: log[PTVURI] = 0.051s-s - 0.207 (r = 0.830, P < 0.0001) and log[PTVURI] = 0.064u-s - 0.459 (r = 0.827, P < 0.0001). Based on theoretical PTVs obtained using these equations, s-s of 26-24, 23-18, and 17-10 in SI were equivalent to severe, moderate, and mild, respectively, and u-s of 22-19 and 18-12 in URI were equivalent to moderate and mild, respectively, according to the classification of the International Continence Society. Conclusion: The UI score should be a simple and useful procedure for use by general gynecologists to grade UI severity clinically. (C) 2000 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. All rights reserved.