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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Epidemiol. 2011 Mar 21;21(6):421–429. doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2010.11.014

Table 1.

Assessment and Operational Definitions of Moderate-to-Severe Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) Assessment and Operational Definitions
Total LUTS

  • AUA-SI score ≥ 8 (of total possible 35 points)

  • Continuous AUA-SI score (secondary outcome).
Voiding symptoms

  • AUA-SI score ≥ 5 (of total possible 20 points) on four questions regarding intermittency, weak urinary stream, hesitancy, and incomplete bladder emptying

  • Continuous voiding symptom score (secondary outcome)

  • For exploratory analyses of individual AUA-SI voiding symptoms, response of “fairly often,” “usually” or “almost always” to the respective AUA-SI question
Storage symptoms

  • AUA-SI score ≥ 4 (of total possible 15 points) on three questions regarding frequency, urgency, and nocturia

  • Continuous storage symptom score (secondary outcome)

  • For exploratory analyses of individual symptoms:

    • Frequency: “frequent urination during the day” or “to urinate again less than two hours after you finished urinating” fairly often or more in the last month

    • Urgency: “a strong urge or pressure to urinate that signals the need to urinate” four or more times in the last 7 days, or “difficulty postponing urination” fairly often or more in the last month

    • Nocturia was defined in two ways based on number of times respondent gets out of bed at night after falling asleep to urinate: 1) at least once, 2) at least twice.
Post-micturition symptoms

  • Feeling of incomplete emptying and/or post-micturition dribble, as assessed by a positive response to at least one of the following (experienced fairly often, usually or almost always):

    • Sensation of not completely emptying the bladder after having finished urinating, and/or

    • Experiencing dribbling after urination.

  • Continuous symptom score, created by summing responses to two questions above indicating how frequently symptoms occur (possible range, 0–10)
Urinary incontinence

  • Score > 3 on the Sandvik severity index (39), which assesses urine leakage frequency (< once/month, one or more times per month, one or more a times per week, or everyday) and amount (drops, small splashes, or more), resulting in a composite score ranging from one to twelve. A severity score ≥ 3 indicates moderate-to-severe UI and corresponds to at least weekly leakage or monthly leakage of volumes more than a few drops in the past 12 months (40–42).

Abbreviations: AUA-SI=American Urological Association-Symptom Index; LUTS=lower urinary tract symptoms