NITES, a nocturnal bladder score to aid diagnosis during the transition to older age care.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: As adults transition to older age, bothersome nocturnal lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) become common. There is need for a reliable assessment metric to detect and measure specific symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To subject the nocturnal LUTS score for older individuals, Nocturia, Incontinence, Toileting and Enuresis Symptom Score (NITES), to psychometric analysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Factor analysis of the metric was conducted with completed questionnaires from 151 older individuals who were either admitted to a tertiary hospital or attending an outpatient continence clinic. Test re-test reliability involved 18 older community dwelling individuals attending a Geriatrician clinic completing the metric at two timepoints separated by at least 1 week. Intra-class correlation coefficients were determined for reliability of each factor and item. RESULTS: The NITES metric was completed by 98 hospitalized older individuals and 53 attending a continence clinic (mean age 83.2 years [SD 7.0]). Factor analysis demonstrated that one item had a floor effect and two items had poor endorsement. After test re-test reliability analysis, a further three items were removed one due to poor correlation between timepoints and two demonstrating inadequate internal consistency. The final NITES metric is comprised of three factors Sleep 4-items, Incontinence 4-items, and Personal Bother 2-items. A 4-item short form for symptom screening was extracted from the longer measure. CONCLUSION: The final NITES metric is a 10-item questionnaire with an embedded 4-item short symptom screen. It has utility utilized to detect nocturnal bladder symptoms in both community dwelling and hospitalized older adults.