The Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life questionnaire is comprised of 28 questions in a Likert scale of 1-5, with a maximal score of 140. These questions encapsulate social functioning, emotional functioning, stone related impact, and vitality. 2,665 total patients were enrolled from 14 different institutions in the United States.
They found that a higher number of stone events were associated with a significant decline in Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life score. Ten stone events were determined to be the cutoff at which quality of life declines most significantly; this was reflected in a decrease in scores in all of the aforementioned domains encapsulated by the questionnaire.
As discussed by Dr. Jiang, this study emphasizes the importance of stone prevention. Patients that have a ureteral stone will likely have an additional episode; thus, follow up and prevention is needed before the decline in quality of life is manifested.
Presented by: Pengbo Jiang, MD, Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine, California
Presented by: Pengbo Jiang, MD, Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine, California
Written by Rajiv Karani, Associate Research Fellow, Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine, at the 37th World Congress of Endourology (WCE) – October 29th-November 2nd, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates