Correlation evaluation of the international prostate symptom score (IPSS), visual prostate symptom score (VPSS), and modified visual prostate symptom score (mVPSS) in Thai males with benign prostatic hyperplasia

Abstract

Objective: To study the correlation between the modified visual prostate symptom score (mVPSS), the visual prostate symptom score (VPSS) and the international prostate symptom score (IPSS) in Thai males who were diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Material and Method: One hundred and ten Thai males who were diagnosed with BPH and LUTS by urologists were enrolled onto the study between 1st March and 31st July 2019. They were divided into 2 different groups by simple random sampling. The first group was requested to complete the A questionnaire which was composed of IPSS and VPSS and the second group was assigned to finish the B questionnaire which consisted of IPSS and mVPSS. Both groups had to complete their personal data, including age, education level, monthly income, and duration of treatment for BPH, and they also were classified as high or low educated groups. The correlations between the scores of mVPSS, VPSS, and IPSS in the high or low educated groups were assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient with IBM SPSS statistics 22.0. Results: There were statistically significant correlations between mVPSS, VPSS, and IPSS (P<0.05) in total and individual scores, which consisted of quality of life, voiding symptom score, storage symptom score, frequency score and nocturia score. According to this study, it was found that the mVPSS and VPSS questionnaires took less time to complete and were easier than the IPSS. However, in high-educated patients, there was no statistically significant rate to complete the mVPSS, VPSS and IPSS questionnaire by themselves. In addition, this study showed a strong positive correlation between the IPSS versus mVPSS and VPSS in the high-educated groups (r=0.935 and r=0.898, respectively). In contrast, in the low-educated patient group, there was no statistically significant correlation between the VPSS and IPSS questionnaires in frequency score. However, this study found a positive correlation of frequency score between the mVPSS and IPSS questionnaires in all educated groups. Moreover, most patients felt that the mVPSS and VPSS questionnaires were easier to understand and complete than the IPSS questionnaire. Conclusion: The mVPSS shows a statistically significant correlation to the IPSS standard questionnaire, which means that the IPSS can be replaced by the mVPSS in order to evaluate Thai males with BPH and LUTS, because the mVPSS can be used with all educated groups and the patients are able to understand and complete the questionnaire more quickly. For these reasons, the mVPSS is an excellent choice to replace the VPSS and IPSS, which still have many limitations with varieties of patients.