O'Leary et al developed 2 brief self-administered indices for evaluating patients with interstitial cystitis. These can be used to determine how problematic the findings are for the patient. The authors are from multiple hospitals in Boston and Philadelphia.
Query period: during the past month
Symptoms:
(1) strong need to urinate with no or little warning
(2) urinating within 2 hours of last urination
(3) getting up to urinate at night
(4) pain or burning in bladder
Each item has 6 responses, from none (0 points) to a lot (5 points).
symptom index =
= SUM(points for all 4 items)
Each symptom is also graded based on how much of a problem it is
|
Problem |
Finding |
Points |
|
frequent urination during the day |
no problem |
0 |
|
|
very small problem |
1 |
|
|
small problem |
2 |
|
|
medium problem |
3 |
|
|
big problem |
4 |
|
getting up at night to urinate |
no problem |
0 |
|
|
very small problem |
1 |
|
|
small problem |
2 |
|
|
medium problem |
3 |
|
|
big problem |
4 |
|
need to urinate with little warning |
no problem |
0 |
|
|
very small problem |
1 |
|
|
small problem |
2 |
|
|
medium problem |
3 |
|
|
big problem |
4 |
|
burning, pain, discomfort or pressure in bladder |
no problem |
0 |
|
|
very small problem |
1 |
|
|
small problem |
2 |
|
|
medium problem |
3 |
|
|
big problem |
4 |
problem index =
= SUM(points for all 4 items)
Interpretation:
• minimum symptom index: 0
• maximum symptom index: 20
• minimum problem index: 0
• maximum problem index: 16
Performance:
• Cronbach alpha was 0.85 for the symptom index and 0.90 for the problem index.
• Test-retest reliability exceeded 0.90.
Specialty: Nephrology, Clinical Laboratory
