title: Natural history of prostatism: high American Urological Association Symptom scores among community-dwelling men and women with urinary incontinence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The American Urological Association Symptom Index (AUASI) has been reported to be nonspecific for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Comparable scores occur in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms of varying etiology, and even among women. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the AUASI and urinary incontinence among community-dwelling men and women.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 1994, a randomly selected cohort of 1540 men and women aged 50 years or older from Olmsted County, Minnesota completed a self-administered questionnaire that assessed urinary symptom severity (AUASI score) and estimated the prevalence of urinary incontinence in the previous 12 months. The association between moderate to severe urinary symptom (AUASI score greater than 7) and urinary incontinence was investigated using multiple logistic regression, with adjustments for gender and age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean and median AUASI scores increased with age, and were higher among those respondents with urinary incontinence and among men. All seven urologic items in the AUASI were more prevalent among respondents with urinary incontinence and among men. Nocturia was highly prevalent among respondents with and without urinary incontinence, but urgency, frequency, and weak urinary stream were more prevalent among respondents with incontinence than among respondents without incontinence. When urinary incontinence, gender, and age were considered simultaneously, the respondents with urinary incontinence (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.4, 5.5), men (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.5, 2.5), and respondents 65 years or older (OR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.2, 1.9) were more likely to have moderate to severe urinary symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that men and women with urinary incontinence and older men and women are significantly more likely to have moderate to severe urinary symptoms. These findings suggest that urinary incontinence may contribute to a high AUASI score in both sexes. Thus, these data indicate that the similarity in the distribution of the AUASI in men and women is, in part, an artifact introduced by the confounding effects of continence status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
authors.forename: R O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Reilly
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Talley
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Lieber
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014481:United States; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014572:Urology