Quality of Life in Women With Urinary Tract Infections
Background: The objective of this study was to undertake an exploratory evaluation of quality-of-life indicators for women suffering from urinary tract infections.
Methods: The RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 (SF-36) was administered to 47 women with a diagnosed urinary tract infection who were being cared for in the Family Medicine Center, Student Health Services, or Urology Outpatient Clinic. A control population of 71 women was obtained from the female members of an undergraduate geography class, a community basketball league, and a local women's choir.
Results: All subsections of the SF-36 quality-of-life indices were significantly decreased in the subject population compared with the control population (lower score indicates lower quality of life): patient general health perception (63.3 vs 78.9, P < .001) physical functioning (76.6 vs 87.6, P = .012), role limitation owing to physical health (53.8 vs 93.0, P < .001) and emotional health (67.4 vs 88.3, P < .001), vitality (43.0 vs 64.9, P < .001), emotional well-being (64.4 vs 80.2, P < .001), pain (58.7 vs 91.5, P < .001), and social functioning (60.4 vs 90.4. P < .001).
Conclusion: Suffering from an urinary tract infection has a detrimental influence on patient quality of life. The effect of urinary tract infections on women and their perception of quality of life have not been hitherto reported in the medical literature. The significant findings in this study call into question whether acute, non-life-threatening illness should be regarded as benign.

An estimated 10% to 20% of women have a urinary tract infection at some point in their lives. The condition is common, and urinary tract infections in women of childbearing age account for 6 to 7 million visits per year to family physicians in the United States. Current knowledge of the cause and risk factors, as well as the medical approach to diagnosis and management, of this condition is well-studied. Many studies have documented 3-day therapy and 7- or 10-day treatment with antibiotics to be equally effective. An investigation of the impact that urinary tract infections have on patients' quality of life while they are symptomatic is unprecedented. The topic is alluded to on occasion in the medical literature and in literature directed at the lay-person, but there have been no studies that attempt to quantify quality of life in urinary tract infections.

Quality of life is the subjective value that a person places on satisfaction with his or her life and is influenced by several factors. Several aspects of quality of life have been documented and defined as being measurable with consistent, reproducible findings. These aspects are physical functioning, role limitation caused by physical health, role limitation caused by mental health, vitality, emotional well-being, social functioning, pain, and patient perception of general health. These eight facets of quality of life are measured by the instrument chosen for this study, the SF-36 (RAND 36-Item Health Survey Version 1.0). This generic, health-related quality-of-life instrument was chosen for its brevity, its ease of scoring, and its well-documented validity and use. This instrument is not age, disease, or treatment specific. It can assess health-related quality-of-life outcomes, namely, those known to be most directly affected by disease and treatment.

While quality of life has not been extensively studied in acute illness, some evaluations using the SF-36 have validated its use during acute conditions. These evaluations have been limited to such acute illness experiences as seasonal allergic rhinitis and sports injuries.

Because an assessment of quality of life in women with urinary tract infections has not been addressed in the medical literature, we decided to begin with a descriptive pilot study. The primary objective was to use the SF-36 to test quality-of-life indices in women with urinary tract infections. Our goal was to compare quality-of-life scores of women suffering from urinary tract infections with those of reasonably age-matched control women (women of the same age-group who were not acutely ill). The secondary objective of this study was to determine whether changes in quality-of-life indices were correlated with the duration or severity of the urinary tract infection.