Observed patient compliance with a structured outpatient bladder retraining program

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to determine patient compliance with a telephone -based retraining program. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective study of 123 women with urinary urge ncy or urge incontinence who were offered bladder retraining with facsimile machine submission of a retraining diary and weekly telephone feedback. RESULTS: Completion was defined as having greater than or equal to 4 follow -up sessions and greater than or equal to 6 weeks of retraining. Seventy-on e percent (87/123) began the retraining program; 63% (55/87) of them comple ted it, for an overall compliance rate of 45% (55/123). When we compared th ose who completed retraining with those who started but did not complete it , only concurrent use of pharmacologic therapy was significantly different (87% vs 53%, respectively; P < .001). This difference remained significant after we controlled for other independent variables, including urodynamic d iagnosis and physician. CONCLUSIONS: A total of 55% of women to whom telephone-based bladder retrai ning was recommended either never started or were noncompliant with the tre atment, Bladder retraining success in the "real world" may be substantially lower than that described in well-funded labor-intensive clinical trials.