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International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form

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Purpose

The ICIQ-SF is a subjective measure of severity of urinary loss and quality of life for those with urinary incontinence (UI).

 

The International Consultation on Incontinence developed an incontinence questionnaire (ICIQ) containing many long and short modules. They include ICIQ-VS for vaginal symptoms, ICIQ-OAB for overactive bladder, ICIQ-UAB for underactive bladder, ICIQ-MLUTS for male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), ICIQ-FLUTS for female LUTS, ICIQ-MLUTS-SEX or ICIQ-FLUTS-SEX for LUTS gender specific sexual matters, and ICIQ-LUTSqol for LUTS related quality of life. Each short module of the ICIQ uses a similar question format and a 5-point Likert scale to assess the presence, severity and associated bother of symptoms. The earliest module to be developed and most common in usage is the International Consultation on Incontinence Modular Questionnaire – Short Form for Urinary Incontinence (ICIQ-UI Short Form). This is a 4-item subjective measure designed to assess the level, impact, and perceived cause of incontinence on quality of life in adult populations. This is the measure for which the psychometrics below are based upon.

Link to Instrument

Acronym ICIQ-SF

Area of Assessment

Incontinence

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

Cost Description

Can be used for clinical care and research for free. If used in research, permission required.

Populations

Non-Specific Patient Population
Mixed Populations

Key Descriptions

  • The ICIQ is a self-reported survey and screening tool for incontinence.
  • 4 main items (of 6 total) ask for rating of symptoms in the past 4 weeks.
  • Take sum score of items 3, 4, 5 (items 1 and 2 are demographic) for the actual score.
  • The final item is a self diagnostic item that is un-scored.
  • Items (questions) 1 and 2 are demographic questions (DOB and gender). Item (3, 4, and 5) scores are summed for the total score on the ICIQ-UI SF
  • Scoring scale: 0-21, minimum 0, maximum 21. A higher score indicates greater impairment from incontinence.
  • Items regarding the average frequency and amount of leakage, the impact of leakage on quality of life (QOL), and the perceived cause of leakage over the past four weeks
  • Item-level scores vary but range from 0-10. Item (question) 6 (self-perceived cause) is unscored.
  • The instrument has been translated and validated into several languages. To see the availability of translations, visit https://iciq.net/translations

Number of Items

6 (4 relevant questions)

Equipment Required

  • Survey form

Time to Administer

Less than 5 minutes

Required Training

No Training

Age Ranges

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Initially reviewed by Krista Ferguson, PT, OCS in 9/2010  

Updated by:

Rebecca Parr, PT, DPT, OCS

Jennie M. Le, MS, MB(ASCP), CGMBS

Tina Schmidt-McNulty, MS, CES, RN

ICF Domain

Body Function

Measurement Domain

General Health

Professional Association Recommendation

International Consultation on Incontinence recommendation grade A (Consistent Level 1 evidence i.e. randomized controlled trials [RCTs] or systematic reviews of RCTs) (Abrams et al., 2007).

Considerations

Urinary Incontinence: (Avery et al, 2004)

  • Score is 0 - 21 with a higher score indicating greater severity
  • Ability to detect change in males and females
  • With conservative management- significant change in all symptom related questions (items 3 and 4) but not in “overall quality of life”
  • With surgical management - significant change in all questions (items 3,4 and 5)
  • The ICIQ-UI SF has been translated and validated through the evaluation of adult patients with urinary incontinence in other countries. English, Chinese, Malay, Taiwanese, Italian, Greek, and Japanese versions were reviewed.
Do you see an error or have a suggestion for this instrument summary? Please e-mail us!

Mixed Populations

back to Populations

Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

Urinary Incontinence in Females: (Nystrom, Sjostrom, Stenlund, & Samuelsson, 2015; n = 250; age 49.24 (10.23); mean score (SD) 10.2 (3.17))

  • SEM = .21 (calculated from Nystrom et al., 2015) using SEM = Standard Deviation from the 1st test / (square root of (n) with n = 218)

Minimal Detectable Change (MDC)

UI in Females: (Nystrom et al., 2015)

  • MDC = .58 at 95% confidence interval (calculated from Nystrom et al.(2015) using MDC = 1.96 x calculated SEM x square root of 2)

Minimally Clinically Important Difference (MCID)

UI in Females: (Nystrom et al., 2015)

  • MCID = 2.52 (2.56) (calculated for n=218)

Cut-Off Scores

UI in Females: (Klovning et al., 2009; n = 1,812 women; mean age = 36.5 (11) years)

  • Slight = 1 - 5, Moderate = 6 - 12, Severe = 13 - 18, and Very severe = 19 - 21

UI in Females: (Karmakar, Mostafa and Abdel-Fattah, 2017; n = 432; age not reported)

6/21 minimum score associated with a 90% sensitive and 85% specific for success/failure after surgery with a high Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.83 (95 % CI 0.74 - 0.89)

Normative Data

UI in Females: (Klovning et al., 2009)

  • Mean ICIQ-UI SF total score was 7.4 (3.6)

UI in Females: (Hajebrahimi et al., 2012; n=123 UI women, mean age 46.30 (13.14) years, 68% low literacy levels, Persian version of ICIQ-UI SF)

  • Mean ICIQ-UI SF total score was 16.6 (4.07)

UI in Females: (Nystrom et al., 2015)

  • Mean total score = 10.2 (3.17)

UI in Females: (Tubaro et al., 2006; n =50; age 21-24 years, Italian version)

  • Mean total score = 9.60 (5.810)

UI in Females: (Al-Shaikh et a.l, 2013; n=37; age 39(9.9) years, Arabic version)

  • Mean score = 11.5 and 11.3

UI in Females: (Karantanis et al., 2004; n = 95 women; mean age = 54 (12) years)

Mean score = 13 (4)

Test/Retest Reliability

Urinary Incontinence: (Hajebrahimi et al, 2004; n = 64 women consulting for UI; mean age = 59 (3.8) years)

  • Significant correlation at a 90% confidence interval (p = 0) between completion of the survey by:
    • The patient in the office
    • The physician in the office
    • The patient at home 
  • Adequate test retest reliability for frequency of leakage (kappa = 0.73)
  • Adequate test retest reliability for amount of leakage (kappa = 0.67) 
  • Adequate test retest reliability for interference with everyday life (kappa = 0.74)

UI in Females: (Lim, Liong, Lau and Yuen, 2017; n = 139 SUI; mean age 52.2 ± 8.61 years; n = 145, English, Chinese, and Malay versions tested)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability indicated by ICIQ-UI SF intra-class correlation (ICC)

 

ICIQ-UI SF Test-Retest Reliability in Scale Versions

Scale Version

Test-Retest Reliability

ICC*

English (n = 46)

Excellent

.95

Chinese (n = 60)

Excellent

.91

Malay (n = 33)

Excellent

.96

 *Intra-class correlation

 

UI in Females: (Gotoh, Homma, Funahashi, Matsukawa and Kato, 2009; n=122; median age = 62 (53-70) years, Japanese version)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability for the total score (ICC=.91) as well as individual questions
    • How often do you leak urine (k=.61)
    • How much urine do you think leaks (k=.62)
    • How much does urine leaking interfere with your daily life (ICC=.90)

UI in Pregnant Females: (Chang, Chen, Chang and Lin, 2011; n=108 pregnant women, age 31.9 (3.18), mean gestational age 26.94 (7.93) weeks, test-retest done with a subsample of n=55 women tested 4 weeks later, Taiwanese version)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability (r-0.75 for total score)
    • How often do you leak urine (k=.62, p=1.0)
    • How much urine do you think leaks (k=.78, p=0.41)
    • How much does urine leaking interfere with your daily life (k=.58, p=.76)
    • When does urine leak – never (k=.82, p=.18)
    • Leaks when you cough or sneeze (k=.78, p=.10)
    • Leaks when you are physically active/exercising (k=.65, p=.16)
    • Leaks when you have finished urinating and are dressed (k=-.02, p=1.0)
    • Leaks for no obvious reason (k=.66, p=.32)

UI in Females: (Tubaro et al., 2006; n =50; age 21-24 years, Italian version)

  • Excellent Test-Retest r=0.96

UI in Females: (Huang et al., 2008; n = 42; mean age 53.5 (33-75) years).

  • Adequate test-retest reliability (k=0.72-0.93, p<0.001)

UI in Females: (Al-Shaikh et a.l, 2013; n=37; age 39(9.9) years)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability for items (k=0.72-0.81)

UI in Adults: (Avery et al., 2004; n = 634; mean age = 57.2 (23.4 - 101.3) years).

Adequate to Excellent test-retest reliability for items (k=0.58-0.90)

Interrater/Intrarater Reliability

UI in Females: (Hajebrahimi et al., 2012)

  • Excellent intra-class correlation coefficient of .84 for Persian version of ICIQ-UI SF

UI in Females: (Tubaro et al., 2006; n =42; age 21-24 years, Italian version)

  • Excellent Intra-class correlation coefficients were .93 and .96 respectively for total score and quality of life item on Italian version of ICIQ-UI SF

Internal Consistency

UI in Females: (Lim et al., 2017)

  • Adequate internal consistency for English, Chinese, and Malay versions.

ICIQ-UI SF Internal Consistency in Scale Versions

Scale Version

Internal Consistency

α*

English

Adequate

.60

Chinese

Adequate

.61

Malay

Adequate

.76

*Cronbach’s Alpha

UI in Females: (Huang et al., 2008; n = 42; mean age 53.5 (33-75) years).

  • Adequate internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha = .71

UI in Females: (Al-Shaikh et a.l, 2013; n=37; age 39(9.9) years)

  • Excellent Internal consistency for Arabic version with Cronbach’s alpha = .97

UI in Females:  (Gotoh, et al., 2009)

  • Adequate Internal consistency for Japanese version with Cronbach’s alpha = .78

UI in Females: (Hajebrahimi et al., 2012)

  • Adequate Internal consistency for Persian version with Cronbach’s alpha = .75

UI in Females: (Tubaro et al., 2006)

  • Excellent Internal consistency for Italian version with Cronbach’s alpha = .90

UI in Pregnant Females: (Chang et al., 2011)

  • Excellent Internal consistency studied on pregnant Taiwanese women with Cronbach’s alpha = .80

UI in Adults: (Avery et al., 2004; n = 634; mean age = 57.2 (23.4 - 101.3) years).

  • Excellent Internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha = .92

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Urinary Incontinence: (Twiss et al, 2007; n = 26 men with urodynamically confirmed stress incontinence; mean age = 67.5 (1.6) years) 

  • Excellent correlation between Patient Global Impression of Improvement in men after perineal sling (r  = -0.81) 

Concurrent Validity

UI in Females: (Karantanis et al., 2004; n = 95 women; mean age = 54 (12) years)

  • Adequate correlation (r = .458) with 24-hour pad test
  • Fair correlation with mean frequency of leagage episodes in urinary diary (Kendall’s tau b=0.399, p =0.002)
  • Poor correlation (P=0.2) with Stamey grade

 

UI in Females: (Klovning et al., 2009)

  • Excellent correlation (r = .62) between ICIQ-UI SF and the Incontinence Severity Index

 

UI in Females: (Gotoh et al., 2009)

  • Excellent to Adequate correlations with KHQ

Concurrent Validity: Correlations with KHQ

Categories

Correlation

Spearman’s rank (ρ)

Severity measures

Excellent

.74*

Impact of incontinence

Excellent

.68*

Limitations in functional ability

Excellent

.68*

Physical limitations.

Excellent

.68*

Social limitations

Adequate

.59*

Emotions

Adequate

.55*

KHQ = King’s Health Questionnaire

* p < 0.05

Construct Validity

Convergent Validity:

UI in Females: (Karmakar, Mostafa and Abdel-Fattah, 2017; n = 432; age not reported)

  • Excellent correlation between ICIQ-SF and Patient Global Impression of Improvement (ρ=0.629)

UI in Females: (Hajebrahimi et al., 2012)

  • Excellent correlation between ICIQ-SF and urodynamic study r=0.93.

UI in Females: (Tubaro et al., 2006; n =50; age 21-24 years, Italian version)

  • Fair correlation with Short Form-36 (ρ=0.485)

UI in Adults: (Avery et al., 2004; n = 634; mean age = 57.2 (23.4 - 101.3) years).

  • Convergent validity varies from poor to excellent between ICIQ-UI-SF, ICmale SF, BFLUTS, and KHQ

Convergent Validity of ICIQ-UI-SF

Score

Correlation

Pearson's (r)

ICSmaleSF

incontinence score

Excellent

0.74*

ICSmaleSF voiding score

Poor

0.26**

BFLUTS incontinence factor

Excellent

0.84*

BFLUTS quality of life factor

Excellent

0.6*

KHQ

Excellent

0.72*

BFLUTS = Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

KHQ = King’s Health Questionnaire

*p-value ≤Image removed. .001, **p-value = .20

 

  • Convergent Validity on perceived cause of leakage between ICIQ-UI-SF and ICSmale SF

Convergent Validity  between ICIQ UI SF and ICSmale Short Form

Category

Correlation

Pearson’s correlation (r)

Before reaching the toilet

Adequate

.24 (p = .23)

When coughing or sneezing

Adequate

.58 (p = .001)

When asleep

Adequate

.50 (p = .008)

After urinating and dressing

Adequate

.45 ( p = .023)

With no obvious reason

Adequate

.24 (p = .23)

ICSmale SF = ICmale short form to access perceived cause of leakage

 

 

Convergent Validity between ICIQ UI SF and BFLUTS

Category

Correlation

Pearson’s correlation (r)

Frequency of leakage

Excellent

.86*

Usual amount of leakage

Adequate

.53*

Perceived cause of leakage: Before reaching the toilet

Adequate

.35***

Perceived cause of leakage: When coughing or sneezing

Adequate

.44*

Perceived cause of leakage: When asleep

Adequate

.49*

Perceived cause of leakage: When active or exercising

Poor

.29 **

Perceived cause of leakage: No obvious reason

Adequate

.55*

*p-value < .001, **p-value = .002, *** p-value = .0001

 

 

UI in Females: The Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI_I) (Nystrom et al., 2015):

  • Adequate correlation  (r = .547 (p < .0001)) between PGI_I  with ICIQ-UF-SF

 

UI in Females: King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ): (Gotoh et al., 2009):

  • Poor to Excellent correlation with total scores between KHQ and ICIQ UI SF

 

Convergent Validity between ICIQ UI SF and Kings Health Questionnaire (KHQ)

KHQ subscale

Correlation

Pearson’s correlation (r)

General health perception

Poor

.09

Incontinence impact

Excellent

.68*

Role limitations

Excellent

.68*

Physical limitations

Excellent

.68*

Social limitations

Adequate

.59*

Personal relationships

Adequate

.31*

Emotions

Adequate

.55*

Sleep/energy

Poor

.28*

Severity measures

Excellent

.74*

*p-value <.05

 

UI in Females: (Avery et al., 2004)

  • IQ di?erentiated between males and females, with women reporting more incontinence than men (58.9%and 25.2% respectively, P < 0.001)
  • detected a lower prevalence of incontinence in the community sample than in urology clinic attendees (44.7% and 9 7.2 % respectively, P < 0.001)

demonstrated a clear association between sex and the perceived causes of incontinence in both the clinic and the community samples (P < 0.0 01)

Content Validity

Urinary Incontinence: (Abrams, Cardozo and Wein, 2012)

  • The ICIQ was developed by 24 individual committees, comprised of experts on the subject. The Third International Consultation on Incontinence provided the ICIQ a grade ‘A’ rating and indicated it should be used for the basic evaluation of a patient’s perspective of urinary incontinence.

UI in Females: (Hajebrahimi et al., 2012)

  • The weighted Kappa Index between the results of the initial questionnaire and the translated version was 0.70

Face Validity

UI in Females: (Huang et al, 2008)

  • There were missing data < 2.0% of items, indicating patients interpreted all items as relevant, which has been proposed as a measure of face validity.

UI in Females: (Avery et al., 2004)

  • Low level of missing data (mean 1.6%)

Floor/Ceiling Effects

UI in Females: (Gotoh et al., 2009)

  • Excellent: Japanese version of ICIQ-SF numbers for floor effect were reported as .8% to 4.1% and ceiling effect was reported as 7.5% to 23.1% indicating no particular floor or ceiling effects

Responsiveness

UI in Females: (Lim et al., 2017)

  • Large effect sizes (>.8) were present for each individual item score as well as the total score

ICIQ-UI SF Responsiveness

Scale Version

Effect size

Standardized Response Mean

English (n = 46)

1.49

1.41

Chinese (n = 60)

2.12

2.07

 

UI in Females: (Gotoh et al., 2009)

  • The scores for all of the ICIQ‐SF items and the total scores decreased significantly after treatment with surgery (Study 1, n ?=?15) or pharmaceutical agents (Study 2, n ?=?58). As expected, considerably larger improvements were noted in the scores of all of the patients who received surgery (median changes for items 1 and 2: ?3.0 and ?4.0, respectively; mean changes for item 3 and the total score: ?6.3 and ?12.1, respectively; P ?<?0.05) than in those of patients who received pharmaceutical treatment (median changes for items 1 and 2: ?1.0 and ?2.0, respectively; mean changes for item 3 and the total score: ?2.3 and ?5.2, respectively; P ?<?0.05).

Bibliography

Abrams, P., Andersson, K. E., Brubaker, L., Cardozo, A, Cottenden, L.,and the members of the committee. (2007). “3rd International Consultation on Incontinence, Recommendations of the International Scientific Committee: Evaluation and treatment of urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and faecal incontinence.” Health Publications, 21, 1589-1630.

 

Al-Shaikh, G., Al-Badr, A., Al Maarik, A., Cotterill, N., & Al-Mandeel, H. M. (2013). “Reliability of Arabic ICIQ-UI short form in Saudi Arabia”. Urology Annals, 5(1), 34-38.

 

Avery, K., Donovan, J., Peters, T. J., Shaw, C., Gotoh, M., & Abrams, P. (2004). “ICIQ: A brief and robust measure for evaluating the symptoms and impact of urinary incontinence”. Neurourology and Urodynamics, 23(4), 322-330.

 

Chang, S. R., Chen, K. H., Chang, T.C., & Lin, H.H. (2011). “A Taiwanese version of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Urinary Incontinence Short Form for pregnant women: Instrument validation.” Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, 714-722.

Gotoh, M., Homma, Y., Funahashi, Y., Matsukawa, Y., & Kato, M. (2009). “Psychometric validation of the Japanese version of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form.” International Journal of Urology, 16, 303-306.

Hajebrahimi, S., Corcos, J., & Lemieux, M. C. (2004). “International consultation on incontinence questionnaire short form: a Comparison of physician versus patient completion and immediate and delayed self-administration.” Urology, 63(6), 1076-1078.

Hajebrahimi, S., Nourizadeh, D., Hamedani, R., & Pezeshki, M. Z. (2012). “Validity and reliability of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form and its correlation with urodynamic findings.” Urology Journal, 9(4), 685-690.

Huang, L., Zhang, S. W., Wu, S. L., Ma, L., & Deng, X. H. (2008). “The Chinese version of ICIQ: A useful tool in clinical practice and research on urinary incontinence.” Neurourology and Urodynamics, 27(6), 522-524.

Karantanis, E., Fybes, M., Moore, K. H., & Stanton, S. L. (2004). “Comparison of the ICIQ-SF and 24-hour pad test with other measures for evaluating the severity of urodynamic stress incontinence.” International Urogynecology Journal of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, 15(2), 111-116.

Karmakar, D., Mostafa, A., & Abdel-Fattah, M. (2017).” A new validated score for detecting patient-reported success on postoperative ICIQ-SF: A novel two-stage analysis from two large RCT cohorts.” International Urogynecology Journal, 28(1), 95–100.

Klovning, A., Avery, K., Sandvik, H., & Hunskaar, S. (2009). “Comparison of two questionnaires for assessing the severity of urinary incontinence: The ICIQ-UI SF versus the incontinence severity index.”  Neurourology Urodynamics, 28(5), 411-415.

Lim, R., Liong, M. L., Lau, Y. K., & Yuen, K. H. (2017). “Validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the ICIQ‐UI SF and ICIQ‐LUTSqol in the Malaysian population.” Neurourology and Urodynamics, 36(2), 438-442.

Nystr?m, E., Sj?str?m, M., Stenlund, H., & Samuelsson, E. (2015). “ICIQ symptom and quality of life instruments measure clinically relevant improvements in women with stress urinary incontinence.” Neurourology and Urodynamics, 34(8), 747-751.

Tubaro, A., Zattoni, F., Prezioso, D., Scarpa, R. M., Pesce, F., Rizzi, C. A., Santini, A. M., Simoni, L., Artibani, W., & The Flow Study Group (2006). “Italian validation of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaires.” BJU International, 97, 101-108.

Twiss, C. O., Fischer, M. C., & Nitti, V. W. (2007). “Comparison between reduction in 24-hour pad weight, International Consultation on Incontinence-Short Form (ICIQ-SF) score, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), and Post-Operative Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) score in patient evaluation after male perineal sling.” Neurourology Urodynamics, 26(1), 8-13.

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