Patients with chronic prostatitis associated with chronic pelvic pain have substantial health care costs and have reduced quality of life, according to an article in the June 14 issue of the
Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the
JAMA/
Archives journals.
According to information in the article, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) is a common disorder characterized by pelvic pain and lower urinary tract symptoms. Between 1990 and 1994, CPPS accounted for almost 2 million outpatient visits per year in the United States. Tests to diagnose CPPS are unreliable and the effectiveness of the most commonly prescribed treatments are not supported by existing evidence, the article states, and patients with CPPS report symptoms associated with depression and hypochondriasis.
Elizabeth A. Calhoun, Ph.D., from Northwestern University, Chicago, and colleagues examined the direct and indirect costs associated with chronic prostatitis among 167 men (average age, 44 years, 78 percent white) enrolled in the Chronic Prostatitis Cohort (CPC). Participants had pain in their pelvic region for at least three months within the last six months before joining the study, and responded to a questionnaire on use of health care resources. This information was used to calculate direct medical costs (based on hospital accounting data), and indirect costs (based on modified labor force, employment, and earnings data from the U.S. Census Bureau).