American Urological Association (AUA) symptom index

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American Urological Association (AUA) symptom index

The American Urological Association (AUA) has developed the following questionnaire to help men determine how bothersome their urinary symptoms are and to check the effectiveness of treatment.¹ This questionnaire has also been adopted worldwide and is known as the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). It is sometimes seen with a Quality of Life Scale at the end of the questionnaire.

Use the following point scale to answer the questions.

• 0 points means you answered no to the question.
• 1 point means you answered yes to the question less than once in 5 times.
• 2 points means you answered yes to the question less than half of the time.
• 3 points means you answered yes to the question about half of the time.
• 4 points means you answered yes to the question more than half of the time.
• 5 points means you answered yes to the question almost always.

Prostate Symptom Score Questions

Over the past month, how often have you:

• Had the feeling of not completely emptying your bladder after you finished urinating?
• Had to urinate again less than 2 hours after you finished urinating?
• Found that you stopped and started again several times when you urinated?
• Found it hard to hold your urine?
• Had a weak urine stream?
• Had to push or strain to begin urination?
• Had to get up to urinate during the night? If you answer yes, give a score to the number of times.
  • 0 means you did not get up at all.
  • 1 means you got up 1 time.
  • 2 means you got up 2 times.
  • 3 means you got up 3 times.
  • 4 means you got up 4 times.
  • 5 means you got up 5 times or more.

Total your score.

Your score shows how severe your symptoms are. The symptom index may be used to develop a treatment plan. Your doctor may also ask you to take the test again after treatment to see how well treatment helped your symptoms.

Compare your total score to the list below.

Quality of Life

If you were to spend the rest of your life with your urinary condition just the way it is now, how would you feel about that?

• Delighted
• Pleased
• Mostly satisfied
• Mixed
• Mostly dissatisfied
• Unhappy
• Terrible

References

Citations

1. Barry MJ, et al. (1992). American Urological Association symptom index for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Journal of Urology, 148(5): 1549–1557.

Credits

Last updated:	March 31, 2006
Author:	Ralph Poore
Reviewed By:	Martin Gabica, MD - Family Medicine, Christopher G. Wood, MD, FACS - Urology/Oncology
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Terrina Vail