Outcome reporting in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the pharmacological management of idiopathic overactive bladder (OAB) in women; a systematic review for the development of core outcome sets (COS)

• Published in: International Urogynecology Journal 2022-05, Vol.33 (5), p.1243-1250
• Main Authors: Moussa, Reem, Rada, Maria Patricia, Durnea, Constantin, Falconi, Gabriele, Betschart, Cornelia, Haddad, Jorge Milhem, Sedgwick, Philip, Doumouchtsis, Stergios K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Bladder; Clinical trials; Collaboration; Drugs; English language; Female; Gynecology; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Muscarinic Antagonists - therapeutic use; Original; Original Article; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Patient satisfaction; Pelvis; Quality standards; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Systematic review; Treatment Outcome; Urinary Bladder, Overactive - complications; Urinary Bladder, Overactive - drug therapy; Urinary incontinence; Urinary Incontinence - complications; Urology; Womens health; Working groups
• ISSN: 0937-3462; 1433-3023; 1433-3023
• DOI: 10.1007/s00192-021-05040-1

Introduction and hypothesis Evidence on OAB management remains suboptimal and methodological limitations in randomized control trials (RCTs) affect their comparability. High quality meta-analyses are lacking. This study aimed to compare selection and reporting of outcomes and outcome measures across RCTs as well as evaluate methodological quality and outcome reporting quality as a first stage in the process of developing core outcome sets (COS). Methods RCTs were searched using Pubmed, EMBASE, Medline, Cochrane, ICTRP and Clinicaltrials.gov from inception to January 2020, in English language, on adult women. Pharmacological management, interventions, sample size, journal type and commercial funding were documented. Methodological and outcome reporting quality were evaluated using JADAD and MOMENT scores. Results Thirty-eight trials (18,316 women) were included. Sixty-nine outcomes were reported, using 62 outcome measures. The most commonly reported outcome domains were efficacy (86.8%), safety (73.7%) and QoL (60.5%). The most commonly reported outcomes in each domain were urgency urinary incontinence episodes (UUI) (52.6%), antimuscarinic side effects (76.3%) and change in validated questionnaire scores (36.8%). A statistically significant correlation was found between JADAD and MOMENT (Spearman’s rho = 0.548, p