The prevalence of prostatitis-like symptoms in China.
OBJECTIVE
We studied the prevalence of prostatitis-like symptoms and identified their associated risk factors in a population based Chinese sample.


METHODS
A volunteer group of 15,000 eligible men residing in Beijing, Anhui, Xi'an, Guangzhou and Gansu cities or provinces were invited randomly to take part in the survey to complete a questionnaire that elicited information regarding sociodemographics, Eysenck personality questionnaire, current stress and health ratings, lifestyle, medical history, expressed prostatic secretion evaluation, score of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index and International Index of Erectile Function-5.


RESULTS
Information on 12,743 (84.95%) men was collected. Of these men 1,071 (8.4%) reported prostatitis-like symptoms (mean National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index pain score 7.55 +/- 3.22). The percent of chronic prostatitis was 4.5% (571) among the symptoms group according to past urological history and expressed prostatic secretion evaluation. Subjects with prostatitis-like symptoms (mean age 34.56 +/- 13.48 years) had higher mean pain and urinary symptoms scores (7.53 +/- 3.22 and 2.84 +/- 2.72, respectively) compared with subjects without prostatitis-like symptoms (1.18 +/- 2.32 and 0.72 +/- 1.66 for pain and urinary symptoms scores, respectively, mean age 30.7 +/- 10.17) (pain and symptoms scores, p <0.05). The quality of life score was 6.03 +/- 2.88 and 3.83 +/- 2.55 in groups with symptoms or nonsymptoms, respectively (p <0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Prostatitis-like symptoms are a multifactorial problem affecting men of all ages (15 to 60 years) and demographics, and the prevalence is high in China. The syndrome is closely related to alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, frequent intercourse, as well as fatigue, pressure and too little sleep. These findings suggest that risk factors for this condition are largely modifiable and highlight potential targets for future prevention.
Liang
Chao-Zhao
CZ
Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Li
Hong-Jun
HJ
Wang
Zhi-Ping
ZP
Xing
Jun-Ping
JP
Hu
Wei-Lie
WL
Zhang
Tao-Fu
TF
Ge
Wei-Wei
WW
Hao
Zong-Yao
ZY
Zhang
Xian-Sheng
XS
Zhou
Jun
J
Li
Yu
Y
Zhou
Zheng-Xing
ZX
Tang
Zhi-Guo
ZG
Tai
Sheng
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult