COMPARISON BETWEEN URINARY DIARIES COMPLETED WITH AND WITHOUT INTENSIVE PATIENT INSTRUCTIONS

The evaluation of the incontinent patient relies on accurate assessmen t of urinary symptoms. Although the 7 day urinary diary is a reproduci ble method of data collection, the optimal means of implementing this diary is unknown. The urinary diary is usually employed after the init ial clinical pathophysiologic evaluation has been performed and the pa tient has received intensive instructions on the correct method of dia ry completion. This study aims to determine if a urinary diary provide d to the patient prior to the initial clinical evaluation along with m inimal instructions will provide symptom data comparable with that obt ained by conventional methods. Two hundred seventy-eight women were re cruited to participate in one of three clinical trials for urinary inc ontinence treatment. All subjects completed a diary prior to the initi al clinical evaluation, the Minimal Instruction Diary, and a second di ary after clinical evaluation, the Intensive Instruction Diary.The Min imal and the Intensive Instruction Diaries were compared for number of episodes of diurnal and nocturnal voluntary micturition and incontine nce. Pearsons' correlation coefficients ranged from 0.67 to 0.78 for e ach of the urinary symptoms. Intrasubject comparison indicated a decli ne in reports of nocturnal voluntary micturitions from the Minimal to the Intensive Instruction Diary. No demographic or urodynamic paramete rs could account for the difference. The 7 day urinary diary is a reli able tool to assess urinary symptoms, which can be utilized prior to t he initial clinical evaluation. Its ease of use and practicality make this diary promising for use in a wider patient population. (C) 1996 W iley-Liss, Inc.