Validity and reliability of the Iciq-Cluts: The First Screener Ques¬tionnaire for Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Children

Abstract

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are a common issue during childhood and account for 40% of visits to pediatric urology specialists. There is a wide variety in the clinical manifestations of LUTS, which include multiple urinary symptoms such as daytime urinary incontinence, nocturnal enuresis, voiding dysfunction, post-void residual urine, vesicoureteral reflux, and urinary tract infections. In most cases, these are accompanied by gastrointestinal disorders such as constipation and/or fecal incontinence. The ICIQ-CLUTS is a 12-question screening questionnaire for LUTS in children. There are two versions of the questionnaire: one for children and one for parents/caregivers. It includes 9 specific items that assess LUTS and 1 item that asks about the frequency of weekly bowel movements. The present study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the questionnaire. Methods Sampling was purpose-based, so that children in age 5 to 18 who referred to children clinic with LUTS or other pediatric problem (except insulin dependant diabetes and postoperation control) were included in the study. Confidentiality of information, after obtaining informed consent, they proceeded to complete the questionnaires. In order to determine validity based on content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR) about the content, clarity and simplicity of the questionnaire questions were used. In order to determine the reliability, the questionnaire was completed by all the people in the study at an interval of about 14 days, and the intraclass correlation index (ICC) and its confidence interval were calculated between the scores obtained from answering the instrument twice for each factor and the entire questionnaire. In order to determine internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for each factor and the entire instrument. SPSS26 software was used for calculations. Results The results of the present study showed that the number of girls with LUTS was more than boys. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.746 obtained for the questionnaire showed that the current questionnaire has the necessary reliability. Also, in our evaluation, CVI for most dimensions of the questionnaire was equal to one and most of the items were considered relevant. In terms of CVR, most of the criteria of the questionnaire scored high.