Validation of the UK Version of the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-Q) - Reliability and Validity in Continent and Incontinent Patients

Q: What was the purpose of validating the OAB-q for the UK?

To evaluate the reliability and validity of the OAB-q in English-speaking UK residents with overactive bladder (OAB).

Q: How was internal consistency reliability assessed in the study?

Cronbach’s alpha values were calculated, and Feldt’s statistic was used to compare UK and US alpha estimates.

Q: What did the results show about using the UK OAB-q version for continent and incontinent patients?

The OAB-q demonstrated strong discriminatory power between continent and incontinent OAB, with reliability and criterion validity supported by correlations with clinical symptoms.

Sep 7, 2026

Upload by Maya Linwood

The study evaluates reliability and validity of the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-q) in a cohort of English-speaking residents in the United Kingdom with overactive bladder (OAB), where such psychometric properties were previously established in US English-speaking patients but not in the UK. Using a 12-week randomized international multicenter placebo-controlled trial with tolterodine tartrate ER, internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha and Feldt’s statistic, and criterion validity was examined via correlations with micturition diaries and global measures. Results support OAB-q as a reliable, valid, culturally linguistically valid tool for assessing health-related quality of life and discriminating continent versus incontinent populations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Hypothesis / aims of study

Study design, materials and methods

Results

Interpretation of results

Concluding message

Reference

407 Pleil A1 , Coyne K2 1. Pfizer Inc, 2. MEDTAP International VALIDATION OF THE UK VERSION OF THE OVERACTIVE BLADDER QUESTIONNAIRE (OAB-Q) IN CONTINENT AND INCONTINENT PATIENTS WITH OVERACTIVE BLADDER (OAB) Hypothesis / aims of study The Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-q) has been well validated in English-speaking patients with overactive bladder (OAB) in the United States [1]; however, the reliability and validity of the OAB-q in English-speaking patients who reside in the United Kingdom is not known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the OAB-q in a cohort of English-speaking UK residents with OAB. Study design, materials and methods The OAB-q is a 33-item, disease-specific, symptom bother and health-related quality of life (HRQL) measure for patients with OAB. It consists of an 8-item Symptom Bother scale, 4 HRQL subscales (ie, coping, concern, sleep, social interaction), and a composite score. Higher scores on the Symptom Bother scale indicate increasing symptom bother; higher scores on the HRQL scales indicate better HRQL. Validity of the measure was evaluated using data from a 12-week, randomized, international, multicenter, placebo-controlled study oftolterodine tartrate extended release (ER) capsules (4 mg once daily) in 190 patients with OAB. Patients were recruited from the United Kingdom and the United States. To examine internal consistency reliability, Cronbach’s alphas were calculated and Feldt’s statistic was used to compare the US and UK alphas. Pearson’s correlations of the OAB-q with micturition diaries and 2 global measures (perception of bladder condition and urgency perception scale) were calculated using baseline data without respect to group. Comparisons of UK and US responses were performed using t-tests. Results There were 190 UK and 400 US patients enrolled. Patient characteristics were similar for each country: mean age=60 years, 73% female for UK patients, and mean age=58 years, 76% female for US patients. Cronbach’s alpha for the OAB-q symptom bother and 4 HRQL subscales ranged from 0.82 to 0.91 for the United Kingdom and 0.85 to 0.92 for the United States; no differences were present in internal consistency by country. Correlations were significant between the OAB-q subscales and patients’ perception of bladder condition (0 .28 to 0.57, P<0 .0001) . Similar results were seen for the correlations between the subscales and perception of urgency (0 .22 to 0.37; P values <0 .05), with the exception of the OAB-q sleep domain (0 . 12, P=0 . 11) . All components of the OAB-q were significantly correlated with the number of micturitions/24 h, the number of urgency episodes/24 h, and the number of incontinence episodes/wk (0 .16 to 0.40; P values <0 .05), with the exception of the correlation of the sleep subscale and incontinence episodes (0 .055, P=0 .45) . US patients reported significantly greater symptom bother (51 .7 vs 44. 1, P<0 .0001) and concern (55 .6 vs 62.9, P<0 .001) than did UK patients. For UK patients, the OAB-q discriminated between continent and incontinent patients in all subscales except sleep in which the HRQL impact was similar for both continent and incontinent patients (P values ≥0.05) . For US patients, there were no differences in the social interaction subscale by continent and incontinent patients. In terms of response to treatment, the effect sizes were similar for both UK and US patients ranging from 0.43 (social interaction) to –1.10 (symptom bother) . Interpretation of results In general, the results support the reliability and validity of the OAB-q in UK residents with OAB. Internal consistency estimates exceeded the threshold criterion of 0.70 across all components of the measure. Correlations with clinical symptoms supported the criterion validity of the measure. The OAB-q showed strong discriminatory power between continent and incontinent OAB, and was highly responsive to treatment. Concluding message

FAQs

What was the purpose of validating the OAB-q for the UK?

To evaluate the reliability and validity of the OAB-q in English-speaking UK residents with overactive bladder (OAB).

How was internal consistency reliability assessed in the study?

Cronbach’s alpha values were calculated, and Feldt’s statistic was used to compare UK and US alpha estimates.

What did the results show about using the UK OAB-q version for continent and incontinent patients?

The OAB-q demonstrated strong discriminatory power between continent and incontinent OAB, with reliability and criterion validity supported by correlations with clinical symptoms.

Sep 7, 2026

Upload by Maya Linwood