Urinary incontinence and its association with socioeconomic status among middle-aged and older persons in Taiwan: A population-based study

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, reliability, validation of King's Health Questionnaire in the Marathi language

Introduction

Outcome measurement is a crucial component of contemporary professional practice. Many Indian rehabilitation facilities employ the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ), but there has never been an official Marathi translation with its reliability and validity.

Materials and Methods

As per the recommendations for cross-cultural validation of an outcome assessment, KHQ was translated into the Marathi language at a tertiary hospital in Pune, India. A study was conducted to assess the dependability of 123 patients from tertiary hospitals in India. The reliability of the study was assessed by two competent physiotherapists. The interrater reliability of the KHQ total scores and each item was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. To compare the interrater dependability with the findings of other investigations, the intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficient was determined.

Results

When evaluated by domain, the KHQ's standardized Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.49-0.92. All domains had reliability that was rated as moderate to strong by ICC, and the severity rating scale varied from 0.53 to 0.81. The Pearson correlation coefficient between KHQ and short form-36 (SF-36) in the majority of related areas was found to be weak to moderate, with values ranging from -0.27 to -0.53.

Conclusions

The Marathi version of the KHQ was translated and adapted for use in Marathi language-speaking Indian women with urinary incontinence complaints. It represents an important instrument for the evaluation of incontinent women in clinical research with good interrater reliability and validity with SF-36 quality-of-life measure.

Urinary incontinence associates with poor work ability in middle-aged women: A Northern Finland Birth cohort 1966 study

INTRODUCTION

Urinary incontinence is a common ailment in women and is likely to affect their work ability. We investigated the associations between the different subtypes of urinary incontinence and several dimensions of perceived work ability in middle-aged general population.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Cross-sectional survey at age 46 among participants of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study (n = 3706, response rate 72%). Urinary incontinence symptoms and several items of Work Ability Index were collected by postal questionnaire. Work ability was dichotomized as good or poor work ability in general, in relation to physical job demands, to diseases and own 2-year prospect of work ability. The associations between urinary incontinence and work ability measures were assessed using logistic regression models, with further adjustments for biological, behavioral and work-related factors as well as general health.

RESULTS

The odds ratio (OR), from lowest to highest, for poor work ability were 1.4-fold among women with stress urinary incontinence (OR 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.72), 2.5-fold with mixed urinary incontinence (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.68-3.74) and 3.3-fold with urgency urinary incontinence (OR 3.34, 95% CI 1.95-5.70). We note that our results reflect work ability in a Nordic society.

CONCLUSIONS

Especially urgency and mixed types of urinary incontinence are associated with poor work ability among middle-aged women.

Causal Associations Between Educational Attainment and 14 Urological and Reproductive Health Outcomes: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Background: The impact of educational attainment (EA) on multiple urological and reproductive health outcomes has been explored in observational studies. Here we used Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate whether EA has causal effects on 14 urological and reproductive health outcomes.

Methods: We obtained summary statistics for EA and 14 urological and reproductive health outcomes from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). MR analyses were applied to explore the potential causal association between EA and them. Inverse variance weighted was the primary analytical method.

Results: Genetically predicted one standard deviation (SD) increase in EA was causally associated with a higher risk of prostate cancer [odds ratio (OR) 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05–1.25, P = 0.003] and a reduced risk of kidney stone (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.62–0.87, P < 0.001) and cystitis (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.67–0.86, P < 0.001) after Bonferroni correction. EA was also suggestively correlated with a lower risk of prostatitis (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.59–0.98, P = 0.037) and incontinence (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.47–0.87, P = 0.004). For the bioavailable testosterone levels and infertility, sex-specific associations were observed, with genetically determined increased EA being related to higher levels of testosterone in men (β 0.07, 95% CI 0.04–0.10, P < 0.001), lower levels of testosterone in women (β −0.13, 95% CI−0.16 to−0.11, P < 0.001), and a lower risk of infertility in women (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.64–0.86, P < 0.001) but was not related to male infertility (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.52–1.20, P = 0.269) after Bonferroni correction. For bladder cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and erectile dysfunction, no causal effects were observed.

Conclusions: EA plays a vital role in urological diseases, especially in non-oncological outcomes and reproductive health. These findings should be verified in further studies when GWAS data are sufficient.