Objective: To assess pediatric urologists' understanding and use of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) resources in clinical practice. HRQOL is becoming an increasingly vital part of patient care. Although HRQOL has been evaluated and instruments have been developed for its assessment for several pediatric conditions, it is underrepresented in pediatric urology.
Methods: A SurveyMonkey 7-item questionnaire was sent to the members of the Society for Pediatric Urology. The questions inquired as to knowledge of surveys available, views on appropriate age for beginning discussion of HRQOL, patients' and providers' ability to assess patient HRQOL, and the need for disease-specific surveys.
Results: One-hundred and eighteen providers (37.6%) completed the survey. Remarkably, 85.6% of the responders believe disease-focused HRQOL instruments would be useful for specific urologic diseases; however, only 14.4% of the providers state use of any HRQOL instrument. Only 5 unique measures were reported. The majority felt the age at which patients can start reporting his or her HRQOL is 6-8 (41.3%) or 9-11 (31.2%) years. A preponderance of providers believed both themselves and parents could "somewhat" evaluate the patient HRQOL, but the majority believe it is important to inquire about parents' perceptions of patient HRQOL.
Conclusion: The overwhelming majority of pediatric urologists believe HRQOL is important but only a minority utilize the available instruments. Further studies are needed to develop instruments to fill this essential gap.
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