Determination of treatment expectations of women with lower urinary tract symptoms

The study is a descriptive cross-sectional study to determine the treatment expectations of women with lower urinary tract complaints. The universe of the study consisted of 300 women who applied to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, between November 2010 and March 2013 with lower urinary tract complaints. The women were included in the study after obtaining permission to participate after being informed. The multi-question questionnaire form developed in line with the literature, the 7-question ''Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7)'' for quality of life in women's lower urinary tract symptoms, the 6-question ''Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6)'' for symptom index and the Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Questionnaire to objectively determine urological symptoms were used in the study. Ethical approval was obtained from Istanbul Faculty of Medicine ethical committee. Data were analyzed by frequency, mean±SD, chi-square, t test and one way ANOVA by SPSS software. The mean age of women was 48,718,72 and they had urinary incontinence for 5,303,83 years. UDI total score was 7,183,54 (min.=0 max.=18). IIQ total score was 12,276,67 (min.=0 max.=24). BFLUTS total score was 26,478,41 (min.=6 max.=51). Most of women (75%) expected an overall complete cure, and 25% of them expected to be able to cope better. There is no difference between expectation level and BFLUTS, UDI6 and IIQ-7 scores. Duration of urinary incontinence and types of incontinence did not affect the level of treatment expectation. Overall women have high level expectations of treatment for lower urinary symptoms. It was determined that severity of symptoms and poor quality of life did not affect the level of expectation from the treatment. Patients may have high level of expectations from the treatment although their complaints about the severity of symptoms are low. Therefore expectations about the level of success should be explained during the treatment regardless of the severity of complaints. Patients' expectations should be taken into consideration in the treatment. There are an insufficient number of studies on this subject