Raja A et al, 2016: How Do Urinary Calculi Influence Health-Related Quality of Life and Patient Treatment Preference: A Systematic Review.
Raja A, Hekmati Z, Joshi HB.
Cardiff University , Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Department of Urology, University Hospital of Wales , Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Urinary stone disease is a common and often recurrent condition that can affect kidney function and requires a range of medical and surgical treatments, all of which can have a significant impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and treatment preferences.
OBJECTIVE: To review the literature systematically for all studies that include HRQoL measurement or patient preferences in the context of urinary stone disease.
METHODS: Ovid MEDLINE(R), Ovid MEDLINE(R) In-Process, EMBASE, SCOPUS, EconLit, and Web of Science were searched from inception to January 2016. All study designs with adult participants were included. Narrative synthesis was performed.
RESULTS: Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria (six randomized controlled trials and 29 observational studies) from 15 countries, including 5472 patients. Eleven studies showed that stone formers had worse HRQoL than the general population; it was noted that stone formers were more likely to suffer from depression. Women have significantly lower HRQoL than men. Twenty-six studies used a generic HRQoL measure and six were nonvalidated disease specific. Studies concerning patient preference were heterogeneous and showed that extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is still favored above other interventions and that a large number of patients would prefer the treatment pathway to be decided upon by their clinician.
CONCLUSION: Urinary calculi and its treatment can have significant negative patient impact and influence patient preferences. Patients with stone disease tend to have worse physical and mental HRQoL, quantified using generic measures. Structured research with disease-specific measures underpinned by sound methodology would be beneficial and aid in development of patient-centric management. Systematic Review Registration: This review was prospectively registered with the international prospective register of systematic reviews-PROSPERO 2013:CRD42013006084.
J Endourol. 2016 May 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Comments 1
“Narrative synthesis was performed.” That means you have to read it! Those who are interested in this important aspect of stone disease find many useful references. Most of the studies evaluated used the SF-36. But it has been shown that this tool, which is not urolithiasis specific, has a limited reliability to find causal relations between HRQOL and stone disease (Donnally CJ et al. Longitudinal evaluation of the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire in patients with kidney stones. Urol Res. 2011 Apr;39(2):141-6.). Unfortunately the urolithiasis specific Wisconsin Stone QOL (Penniston KL, Nakada SY Development of an instrument to assess the health related quality of life of kidney stone formers J Urol. 2013 Mar;189(3):921-30) has not yet made it into general application.