Status investigation of benign prostatic hyperplasia in outpatient department for elderly patients in 11 Chinese cities / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic status of lower urinary tract symptoms(LUTS)/benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) (LUTS/BPH) in outpatient department for elderly patients, and to understand the patients' attitude and knowledge on the disease. Methods The investigation was conducted in 34 outpatient departments for elderly patients located in 11 cities from February to September 2008. The male patients who came to the clinic during the survey time were investigated whether they had LUTS /BPH history or not. Then some eligible patients were chosen to accept a more detailed questionnaire and BPH-related examinations. Results There were 31371 male patients who came to the clinic. 47.0% of them (14748 cases) had the history of LUTS / BPH, and 72.4 % (10678 cases) had medical or surgical treatments presently or previously, whereas 27.6% were untreated. The three most commonly performed examinations in clinical practice were urinalysis, prostate specific antigen (PSA) and transabdominal ultrasonography. In 3542 patients receiving medical investigation, 32.6% (1155 cases) were given 5a reductase inhibitor, and 35.0% (1239 cases) received a combination therapy of 5a reductase inhibitor plus a receptor blocker. 84.5 (1796 cases) and 79.0% (1678 cases) of all the patients were satisfied with the examinations and treatments respectively. Conclusions LUTS and BPH are common in outpatient department for elderly patients. There are discrepancies of examinations and medical treatments between real medical practice and international suggestion, and the patients' understanding of the disease should be improved