Urinary incontinence self-report questions: reproducibility and agreement with bladder diary

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: This study aims to measure self-report urinary incontinence questions’ reproducibility and agreement with bladder diary. METHODS: Data were analyzed from the Reproductive Risk of Incontinence Study at Kaiser. Participating women reporting at least weekly incontinence completed self-report incontinence questions and a 7-day bladder diary. Self-report question reproducibility was assessed and agreement between self-reported and diary-recorded voiding and incontinence frequency was measured. Test characteristics and area under the curve were calculated for self-reported incontinence types using diary as the gold standard. RESULTS: Five hundred ninety-one women were included and 425 completed a diary. The self-report questions had moderate reproducibility and self-reported and diary-recorded incontinence and voiding frequencies had moderate to good agreement. Self-reported incontinence types identified stress and urgency incontinence more accurately than mixed incontinence. CONCLUSIONS: Self-report incontinence questions have moderate reproducibility and agreement with diary, and considering their minimal burden, are acceptable research tools in epidemiologic studies.

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