BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - The association of chronic disease with impairments in patients’ health-related quality of life (QOL) is not new. An extensive literature has amassed over the last 20 years regarding the impact of various chronic disorders on patients’ lives. Some urologic diseases, such as erectile dysfunction, prostate cancer, and overactive bladder, have been associated with impaired QOL.^1-3 However, even though it is usually a chronic, recurrent, and painful condition, stone disease has not been assessed with respect to patients’ QOL.

While the primary end point for treatment of urolithiasis has been a stone-free state, an important outcome to patients is QOL. We hypothesized that stone disease may affect health-related QOL in recurrent stone formers. Our objective was to characterize the relationships between demographic and clinical variables and health-related QOL of patients with urolithiasis treated in our metabolic stone center. We used a generic, validated health survey to estimate the impact of stone disease on patients’ well-being. Prior studies in stone formers have used specific questionnaires to evaluate the impact of stent placement and QOL following extracorporeal SWL or other surgical modalities. However, this is the first methodologically rigorous assessment of the general health-related QOL of stone formers at various disease stages.

Our results showed that stone formers have impaired health-related QOL, particularly for bodily pain, compared with adults without chronic disease. While we did not anticipate gender differences within our sample, our results showed clearly that women stone formers are more profoundly affected by stone disease than men, with greater impairments in all domains, especially for physical functioning and vitality. In both men and women, QOL impairments were potentiated by depression, diabetes, obesity, or musculoskeletal complaints. Due to the cross-sectional nature of our study, we were unable to assess the baseline health-related QOL of our patients. We hope this will be addressed by future studies that assess and compare patients at similar points along the continuum of the disease. As more is learned about the health-related QOL of patients with urolithiasis from a variety of regions and different backgrounds, clinicians will better understand the differential effects of stone disease on patients’ lives.

References

1. Litwin MS, Nied RJ and Dhanani N: Health-related quality of life in men with erectile dysfunction. J Gen Intern Med 1998; 13: 159.
2. Litwin MS, Lubeck DP, Stoddard ML, Pasta DJ, Flanders SC and Henning JM: Quality of life before death for men with prostate cancer: results from the CaPSURE database. J Urol 2001; 165: 871.
3. Currie CJ, McEwan P, Poole CD, Odyemi IA, Datta SN and Morgan CL: The impact of the overactive bladder on health-related quality of life. BJU Int 2006; 97: 1267.

Written by
Kristina L. Penniston, PhD, and Stephen Y. Nakada, MD, as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.

Health Related Quality of Life Differs Between Male and Female Stone Formers - Abstract

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