A standardized telephone interview with validated questionnaires for very long-term evaluation of women lost to follow-up after a stress urinary incontinence procedure

Objectives: Telephone interviews including questionnaires have been used to obtain very long-term (>10-year) follow-up after stress urinary incontinence (SUI) procedures in women otherwise lost to follow-up (LTF). For questionnaires validated for office use, our goal was to evaluate recent telephone vs last clinic scores in a long-term study. Methods: For women with >10 years of follow-up after anterior vaginal wall suspension (AVWS) for bothersome SUI associated with an anterior compartment prolapse, questionnaire scores from their last clinic encounter were compared with their scores from a standardized telephone interview at long-term follow-up. The validated questionnaires were Urinary Distress Inventory 6-Short Form (UDI-6), International Incontinence Questionnaire 7-Short Form (IIQ-7), and Quality of Life (QoL). Results: Eighty-four women underwent a telephone interview (median follow-up: 13.8 years, interquartile range [IQR]: 12.2-17) after AVWS. The median difference between telephone and clinic visit was 10.2 years (IQR: 6.1-12.2). The clinic UDI-6 total score remained low but was higher than the phone score (mean difference 1.2, P =.0023). The UDI-6 Q2, Q3, Q5, IIQ-7, and QoL scores did not significantly differ between clinic and phone. For “incontinent” AVWS patients (UDI-6 Q3 ≥ 2), there was a larger difference between clinic and phone UDI-6 total score (P <.0001), while “dry” patients (UDI-6 Q3 ≤ 1) responded similarly. Conclusions: In women who would otherwise be LTF after anti-incontinence native tissue repair AVWS, UDI-6 total score varied slightly between last clinic and long-term follow-up phone interviews, but QoL and IIQ-7 remained similar.