Priapism Impact Profile Questionnaire: Development and Initial Validation

Objective: To create and evaluate a psychometric instrument that measures the impact of experiencing priapism from the patient perspective.

Methods: The research protocol consisted of several phases as follows: (1) generating items, (2) composing a patient questionnaire, (3) administering the questionnaire to patients with both active and remitted (≥1 year without priapism episodes) histories of priapism, (4) performing internal consistency and criterion-oriented validity analyses in correlation with clinical histories and erectile function assessment tools, and (5) ascertaining psychometric properties of the instrument.

Results: The final instrument comprised a 12-item Priapism Impact Profile (PIP) questionnaire, representing the following 3 domains adversely impacted by priapism: quality of life (QoL), sexual function (SF), and physical wellness (PW), with higher scores indicating inferior experience in respective domains. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the total PIP score and the 3 domain scores were >0.75. Fifty-four patients (mean age, 31.7 ± 11.4 years) completed the questionnaire. Patients with active priapism (n = 42) had higher total, QoL, SF, and PW scores than those with priapism remission (n = 8; P <.05, P <.05, P = .09, and P <.01, respectively). Patients with a history of recurrent priapism episodes >2 hours in duration had higher total, QoL, SF, and PW scores than those with "very minor" priapism recurrences (≤2 hours in duration; P <.01, P <.01, P <.05, and P <.001, respectively). Patients with "mild-to-moderate" to "severe" erectile dysfunction had higher total, QoL, SF, and PW scores than those with no or "mild" erectile dysfunction (P <.05, P = .14, P <.01, and P = .25, respectively).

Conclusion: The PIP questionnaire is a novel psychometric instrument that offers a means to quantify the adverse health impact of the patient's experience with priapism.