Characterizing the Health-Related Quality of Life Burden of Overactive Bladder Using Disease-Specific Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction: The objective was to identify the most commonly used patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments for overactive bladder (OAB), determine which are the most useful for measuring burden in OAB and characterize the findings of recent studies that have employed PRO instruments to assess OAB symptoms and the effects of treatment. Methods: A systematic search of OAB literature published between January 2006 and November 2017 using Medline/PubMed and EMBASE databases. Results: Of 3425 abstracts and 500 full-text articles reviewed, 58 studies (both clinical trials and observational studies) were included in the review. The most commonly used PRO instruments were the OAB Questionnaire (OAB-q; 64%), followed by the King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ; 31%) and the Patient Perception of Bladder Condition (PCBC; 21%). Synthesis of data from studies using the OAB-q showed that OAB treatment with antimuscarinics, mirabegron and onabotulinumtoxinA all improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and symptoms beyond the benefits observed with placebo. The OAB-q could detect dose–response relationships in some studies and demonstrated there were no significant differences across therapies from different drug classes. Conclusion: The HRQoL burden of OAB and response to treatment can be reliably measured by PRO instruments, and the OAB-q is the most commonly used instrument in OAB, particularly in clinical trials of OAB interventions. These data will be useful to provide benchmarks of burden levels for PRO scores obtained among those on contemporary therapies for comparison with outcomes from patients managed with emerging treatments. Funding: Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc.