Schooling impacts on the overactive bladder diagnosis in women.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the overactive bladder (OAB) diagnosis using OAB-V8 and ICIQ-OAB questionnaires in women with different schooling and cultural levels.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three hundred and eighty six healthy women answered a clinical questionnaire filling out information about schooling, demographic and gynecological data. The OAB-V8 and ICIQ-OAB questionnaires were used to evaluate OAB diagnosis and symptoms; and the QS-F questionnaire, to determine the sexual function. All questionnaires were validated in Portuguese.

RESULTS: The mean age was 37.3 years-old. Regarding to schooling level, 23.1% had concluded primary education; 65.8%, secondary school; and 11.1% had higher education. Considering the OAB-V8 (score ≥8), 51.8% of evaluated women had OAB diagnosis. There was a positive linear correlation between the OAB-V8 and ICIQ-OAB questionnaires in its sections "a" (r=0.812, p<0.001) and "b" (r=759, p<0.001). There was a positive linear correlation between age and the amount of time used to answer the OAB-V8, ICIQ-OAB and QS-F questionnaires (p<0.001). The ICIQ-OAB was the hardest to answer for all schooling levels when compared to the other questionnaires. Women who had concluded primary and secondary education significantly demanded more help to answer all questionnaires than those with higher education (p<0.05). Furthermore, women with higher education took significantly less time answering all questionnaires when compared to their less educated counterparts (primary and secondary schooling), since they were quicker to answer each individual question.

CONCLUSION: Educational level and ageing had an impact on women response using different questionnaires for OAB and sexual function evaluations.