Introduction and hypothesis: The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ) Bladder Diary (BD) is a standardized and validated diary, developed in the English language, designed to assess lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men and women. This study reports the translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation process of this diary to the Portuguese language.
Methods: After translation and back-translation of the ICIQ-BD to Portuguese, 140 urologic patients were asked to fill in this 3-day diary as well as the Overactive Bladder questionnaire Short Form (OABqSF) and a questionnaire evaluating the difficulties in filling out the ICIQ-BD. A subset of 60 patients filled out a second diary with/without LUTS treatment in between (30 patients in each group). In addition, content validity, internal consistency, criterion and construct validity were tested.
Results: The Portuguese version of the ICIQ-BD showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.78), and patients reported few difficulties in filling out this tool, answering most commonly 1 on a 1-6 scale of difficulty. Excellent test-retest reliability and responsiveness of the diary were observed when comparing the first diary to a second completed 2-6 weeks later. Criterion validity was also confirmed, given the good correlation with the OABqSF (Pearson's 0.386-0.447). Finally, construct validity was established through statistically significant concordance between data obtained in the BD with generally accepted theories.
Conclusion: The present version of the ICIQ-BD is the first bladder diary successfully validated in the Portuguese language. It is a suitable and standardized tool for scientific research and diagnostic assessment of LUTS in adult men and women.
Keywords: Bladder diary; Lower urinary tract symptoms; Patient-reported outcome measures; Surveys and questionnaires; Urinary bladder, overactive; Urinary incontinence.
© 2021. The International Urogynecological Association.