For a study, researchers sought to assess if completing a Personal Patient Profile – Prostate (P3P) decision aid before a prostatectomy affected how uncomfortable erectile dysfunction and urine incontinence were after the process.
Men with newly diagnosed clinically localized, very low to intermediate risk prostate cancer who decided to have a prostatectomy within the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative between 2018 and 2021 were included in the retrospective research. The Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC-26)was used to quantify urine incontinence and erectile dysfunction following prostatectomy. In addition, multivariable logistic regression models were employed to determine the relationship between P3P usage and these symptoms.
About 7% (n = 266) of the 3,987 patients included in the study utilized P3P. In comparison to non-users, men who took P3P for 6 months reported much-reduced discomfort from erectile dysfunction (aOR 0.42 [95% CI 0.27-0.66]). The impact of P3P on erectile dysfunction-related discomfort at 12 months was not statistically significant (aOR 0.62 [95% CI 0.37-1.03]). There was no statistically significant difference in urinary incontinence-related discomfort among men who used P3P(3-month: aOR 0.56 [95% CI 0.30-1.06]; 6-month; aOR 0.79 [95% CI 0.31-1.97]).
Within the boundaries of the study’s limitations, they discovered that using a decision aid for localized prostate cancer was linked to a lower likelihood of men being affected by sexual dysfunction at 6 months after prostatectomy, but not by urine incontinence.
Reference: goldjournal.net/article/S0090-4295(22)00160-1/fulltext
