After 12 months of medication, only 16% of men reported that they successfully achieved their symptom-specific goals, and the median goal achievement score was 3 points (Table 2). Noticeably, 33%

reported less than half achievement, and 14% did not achieve their goals at all. On the contrary, their symptoms were significantly improved in terms of traditional outcome measures, such as the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), ICS-male Scored Form (ICS-male SF) questionnaire, voiding diary, and maximum flow rate. The authors suggested that Selleck SCH 900776 the low goal achievement might be attributable to unreasonable and unrealistic goals or expectations. Thus, they recommended thorough conversation with patients to help them have reasonable goals and expectations for treatment. Additionally, among traditional outcomes, only the change in the quality of life score on the IPSS was revealed to have correlation with goal achievement. In conclusion, the authors stated that assessment of goal achievement might be a useful outcome measure in patients with BPO reflecting change in the quality of life.

Research on goal achievement was pioneered in the context of surgical treatment for pelvic floor disorders, including stress incontinence.18–21 However, GSK126 in vitro most of the studies included heterogeneous patient groups, and the surgical procedures were diverse. Recently, Han et al.22 reported goal achievement after midurethral sling surgeries in women with stress incontinence. According to the study, surgical goals were mainly related to symptom relief, followed by improvement Dimethyl sulfoxide in daily life. One year postoperatively, target goals were achieved in 90% of women (Table 3). Goal achievement was related to patient

satisfaction and objective surgical outcome; however, objective outcome was not related to satisfaction. Another study also reported high goal achievement after single incision midurethral sling in women with stress incontinence.23 Again, goals for surgery were mostly related to symptom relief. The median score of goal achievement was 4.5 on the Likert scale, and 81% of women successfully achieved their goals (Table 4). Higher goal achievement after surgery in women with stress incontinence might be due to the relatively homogeneous and realistic goals compared to those of patients with OAB or BPO. As described in the previous section, the individualized and multidimensional steps for identifying and ranking goals, assessing expectations, and measuring goal achievement are difficult to execute in both clinical and research settings. Thus, a method to standardize and facilitate these processes is needed within the context of LUTS. For this purpose, the Self-Assessment Goal Achievement (SAGA) questionnaire was developed and tested in OAB patients.