Epidemiology of Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder

间质性膀胱炎(IC)以慢性衰弱性膀胱疼痛为特征，常伴有尿频和尿急。由于缺乏明确和被广泛接受的病例定义，研究一直受到阻碍，人们对1C在人群中的患病率、IC患者的全部疾病负担、他们寻求的护理类型以及他们接受的治疗类型知之甚少。目前，还没有用于患者筛查或流行病学研究的标准化问卷。IC信息的缺乏，难以满足患者对医疗和非医疗的需求。因此，在拟议的研究中，我们将建立(1)使用德尔福IC和具有类似症状的疾病的专家小组进行患者筛查或流行病学研究的女性IC的病例定义；(2)开发并验证症状问卷，该问卷可用于识别女性IC患者并区分 (3)针对IC患者自我报告的功能状态，包括身体、精神、社交、性/关系、角色功能和其他被IC患者认为重要的因素；(4)调查30,000多名妇女的泌尿症状，并使用有效的症状问卷，对23,000多名妇女进行筛查，以估计IC在美国的患病率，并提供354名18岁以上符合IC病例定义的妇女和300名有IC样症状的妇女的样本；(5)描述IC对患者生活的影响，包括IC特定的功能状态以及IC对生活质量、身心健康、压力和应对、社会支持、性功能、社会功能、劳动力的影响 这些结果与关于其他慢性病疾病负担的现有数据进行了比较。

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is characterized by chronic and debilitating bladder pain, usually accompanied by urinary frequency and urgency. Because research has been hampered by the lack of a clear and well accepted case definition, little is known about the prevalence of 1C in the population, the full burden of disease for IC patients, the kinds of care they seek, and the kinds of treatment they receive. At present, there is no standardized questionnaire for patient screening or epidemiological studies. The lack of information about IC makes it difficult to meet patients' needs for medical and non-medical care. In the proposed research, therefore, we will establish (1) a case definition of IC in women for patient screening or epidemiological studies using a Delphi panel of experts in IC and diseases with similar symptoms; (2) develop and validate a symptom questionnaire that can be used to identify female IC patients and distinguish them from those with similar conditions (e.g., overactive bladder, urinary tract infection, and endometriosis); (3) develop an IC-specific measure of self-reported functional status, including physical, mental, social, sexual/relationship, role functioning and other factors identified by IC patients as important; (4) survey more than 300,000 women for urinary symptoms and, using the validated symptom questionnaire, screen more than 23,000 to estimate prevalence of IC in the United States and provide a sample of 354 women over age 18 who fit the case definition for IC and 300 who have IC-like symptoms; (5) describe the impact of IC on patient's lives, including IC-specific functional status and the impact of IC on quality of life, mental and physical health, stress and coping, social support, sexual functioning, social functioning, labor force participation and income, as well as utilization of traditional and alternative care and compare these results with existing data on disease burden for other chronic diseases.