Introduction: The aim of the study was to validate the Ureteral Stent Symptom Questionnaire (USSQ) in Danish for patients with indwelling ureteral stents.
Methods: The linguistic validation of the original USSQ was performed following standardised multi-step translation procedures. Seventy patients with indwelling ureteral stents were asked to complete the Danish USSQ one and two weeks after stent placement and four weeks after stent removal.
Results: A total of 65 patients (92.9%) completed the USSQ. Statistical evaluation revealed good internal consistency in all domains except work performance. Satisfactory convergent validity (less-than -0.4 or greater-than 0.4) was demonstrated for urinary symptoms, body pain and global quality of life. The test-retest reliability-coefficient was statistically significant for urinary symptoms, general health, pain and sexual matters. Inter-domain associations were positive and monotone for all subscales. All sub-scores, except sexual matters, significantly decreased from one week after stent insertion to four weeks after stent removal (p less-than 0.001).
Conclusion: The Danish USSQ is a reliable and valid instrument with which to evaluate urinary symptoms and general health in patients with indwelling ureteral stents.
Funding: Ideforum, Vejle Hospital, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, granted 80,000 DKK to support this work.
Trial registration: The Danish National Ethics Committee and Region Syddanmark approved the study (Study approval number 20192000-168 and journal number 19-52219, respectively).
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