title: Monthly variation in acute urinary retention incidence among patients with benign prostatic enlargement in Taiwan.
abstract: Acute urinary retention (AUR) is characterized by a sudden and painful  inability to pass urine and is the most common urological emergency. However,  according to our knowledge, no study to date has attempted to explore the  monthly variation of AUR after adjusting for climatic parameters. This study  aimed to examine the monthly variation of AUR due to benign prostatic  enlargement (BPE) in Taiwan. The data used in this study were sourced from 2  datasets: the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 and a meteorological  dataset supplied by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. We identified 1406  patients aged 40 years or more with a diagnosis of BPE that could all be  followed throughout a 6-year study period (2003-2008). We used the  autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) method to examine the  incidence of AUR for seasonality. The results show that January (midwinter)  had the highest rates, decreasing in March to a trough in June (early summer).  The incidence then increased again and reached a peak in December (early  winter). The ARIMA test also revealed significant monthly variation in the  incidence of AUR. In addition, the ARIMA regression revealed that January,  February, August, October, November, and December had significantly higher  monthly incidence rates of AUR compared with June, after adjusting for the  time trend effect and climatic parameters. Our study concluded that  significant monthly variation in the incidence of AUR occurred, and January  (midwinter) had the highest rates.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Ching-Chun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chin-Shyan
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yi-Kuang
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Herng-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000150:complications*; D012621:Seasons; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016055:Urinary Retention / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D014887:Weather