Bladder and bowel dysfunction (BBD) are common problems in children presenting for pediatric urology referral. Psychiatric issues may be present in these children, making their treatment difficult. In 2013, the University of Iowa Voiding Improvement Partnership (VIP) Clinic was established for the treatment of these patients.
This study sought to evaluate early experience with this specialized clinic, to determine the pre-existing urologic and psychologic conditions seen in these clinic patients, and to evaluate the clinical outcomes after VIP treatment.
A retrospective, Institutional Review Board-approved review of all patients seen in the VIP Clinic was performed. The following were evaluated: patient demographics, underlying urologic and psychologic diagnosis, and treatment decisions. All patients were asked to complete the University of Iowa Pediatric Bladder and Bowel Dysfunction questionnaire at each visit. Questionnaire scores from the patients' first and most recent clinic visits were compared.
To date, 66 patients have been evaluated at the VIP Clinic, accounting for 112 clinic visits. The mean age of the VIP patients was 8.5 years (range, 4-16) and 59% of the patients were female. Pre-existing urological conditions and psychological conditions are shown in the Summary Table. A large number (62%) of patients required further psychological evaluation, secondary to concern for an undiagnosed psychiatric issue. In addition, the clinic had improved patients' BBD symptoms over time. When first evaluated in clinic, patients had an average Iowa BBD Questionnaire score of 31 (range, 47-13), which improved to an average score of 25 (range, 47-7) (P = 0.03). In addition, 23% of the patients improved to where they could be discharged from uro-psychologic care.
It was feasible to establish the present multidisciplinary uro-psychology clinic. Such a clinic may unearth undiagnosed psychological issues, and improve bowel and bladder dysfunction in these difficult-to-treat patients.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 July 2017.
All research outputs
#19,256,315
of 31,266,886 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Pediatric Urology
#1,275
of 2,910 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#184,182
of 343,596 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Pediatric Urology
#34
of 72 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 31,266,886 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,910 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 343,596 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 45th percentile – i.e., 45% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 72 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 48th percentile – i.e., 48% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
