Socioeconomic demographics of patients referred to the Scottish National Service: Sacral Nerve Stimulation for Urinary Dysfunction

Aim: Implantation of a permanent sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) device is reserved for patients who have demonstrated benefit during testing and patients selected for implantation must have shown a minimum level of understanding with the technology. The hypothesis behind this study was that the Scottish SNS for Urinary Dysfunction service unknowingly selected patients from higher socioeconomic classes, who seemed more likely to manage the technology. The objectives of this study were to analyse socioeconomic status of referrals and to compare socioeconomic classes of referrals which were (a) accepted for testing and (b) proceeding to permanent implantation. Methods and results: All patients referred to the service from April 2010–February 2013 were included in this study. Using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2012, each patient’s postcode was matched to the corresponding datazone quintile (1–5, in descending order of deprivation). Altogether 178 referrals were analysed with no significant differences between each quintile observed: of these 56.7% progressed to testing, and 36.5 % progressed to permanent implantation with no significant difference in proportion between each quintile. Conclusion: Reassuringly, patient selection for sacral nerve stimulation in our study demonstrated no significant discrimination by socioeconomic status.