Recurrent UTI questionnaire further validated and ready to license
A new Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) measure (or PROM), which aims to prioritise the patient of recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI) symptom and pain experiences, has passed further validation testing with flying colours. This measure is now available to license via InSpired Health Outcomes.
A recently published research article on the Recurrent UTI Symptom Scale (RUTISS) has provided further evidence of the psychometric robustness of this new patient-centred tool.
Building on a previous publication that describes the preliminary development and validation of the RUTISS, this latest publication in the urological journal BJUI Compass confirms the questionnaire’s high psychometric performance. The excellent structural validity and reliability of its refined item set of 11 symptom and pain questions (from a total of 15) have been demonstrated with a large international patient sample.
In addition, the strength of the results supports the scoring of individual domains within the RUTISS, capturing valuable patient feedback on key clinical areas, including urinary symptoms, urinary presentation, UTI pain or discomfort, and bodily sensations.
The RUTISS was commissioned by the social enterprise Live UTI Free, and developed by researchers at PARED Insights. The aim of this new PRO measure is to improve the assessment of symptoms experienced by patients living with rUTI.
There is an urgent need to address the rUTI patient perspective in both clinical practice and urological research, and application of the RUTISS will provide a standardised approach to this challenge. Using the RUTISS facilitates evaluation and monitoring of key patient-reported outcomes, identifying opportunities to enhance rUTI care and management, as well as informing patient-clinician interactions to improve shared decision making on care pathways and patient-centred care.
A second UTI-focussed questionnaire, the Recurrent UTI Impact Questionnaire (RUTIIQ), utilises 18 items to evaluate the impact of living with this condition on key quality of life domains and is regularly used to complement the RUTISS.
Both the RUTISS and RUTIIQ are supported and licensed by InSpired Health Outcomes. Please get in touch if you have any questions about either measure or would like to request a licence.