Urgency is the core symptom of female overactive bladder syndrome, as demonstrated by a statistical analysis.
OBJECTIVE
We determined overactive bladder symptoms in combination with other lower urinary tract symptoms and illustrated their relationships using a statistical analysis. Furthermore, we also describe the potential contributory factors and adaptation strategies in patients that are associated with overactive bladder subtypes.


METHODS
A total of 1,930 women with a mean age +/- SD of 46 +/- 15 years (range 15 to 91) with troubling lower urinary tract symptoms were successfully interviewed with a validated questionnaire at the urology and urogynecology clinics at 14 medical centers in Taiwan. The questionnaire was constructed to evaluate 6 lower urinary tract symptoms and 7 adaptation strategies. A log linear statistical model and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to assess the associations among lower urinary tract symptoms and the potential overactive bladder contributory factors, respectively.


RESULTS
No single or isolated symptom presented in patients with overactive bladder. Most patients reported a combination with other lower urinary tract symptoms. These female patients can be categorized into 3 groups, including 1 is associated with dry symptoms (urgency, frequency and nocturia), 1 associated with wet symptoms (urgency, urge incontinence and mixed stress incontinence) and a small group that may have overactive bladder symptoms combined with voiding difficulty symptoms. in contrast to patients with dry overactive bladder (urgency associated with frequency and/or nocturia without urge incontinence), after multiple logistic regression analysis patients with wet overactive bladder (urgency with urge incontinence) had a greater average age and higher body mass index, and made more adaptation efforts (p <0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
We used statistical analysis to determine and suggest that urgency is the core symptom of female overactive bladder syndrome and there are 3 distinctive overactive bladder subtypes, which differ in their symptom combinations. Different symptom combinations and patient characteristics affect female adaptation to overactive bladder syndrome.
Hung
Man-Jung
MJ
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Republic of China.
Ho
Esther Shih-Chu
ES
Shen
Pao-Sheng
PS
Sun
Mou-Jong
MJ
Lin
Alex Tong-Long
AT
Chen
Gin-Den
GD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013577:Syndrome; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014555:Urination Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis