Hypothesis / aims of study
One of the commonest urological complains that drive the female patients to visit the urology clinic are lower urinary tract symptoms that are related to overactive bladder syndrome , usually this syndrome is difficult to identify and diagnose .
That’s why many patients who suffer from OAB symptoms will not seek medical attention because they are not aware that OAB is a disease and it is treatable , they usually link it to the process of aging and will not talk about it , so this misunderstanding due to lack of recognition by the patient .
To our knowledge , there is no previous study to address the prevalence of OAB in Saudi Arabia.
our aim of study is to assess the prevalence and risk factors of overactive bladder syndrome (OAB), and its impact on quality of life among Saudi women.
Study design, materials and methods
A cross-sectional, observational epidemiological study was carried out in women aged ≥ 18 years to define the prevalence overactive bladder syndrome , risk factors and the effect on quality of life , by self-filling OAB SF questionnaire over the period (Feb – March 2018) in Saudi Arabia.
The questionnaire was translated in Arabic from the OAB short form (OAB SF) and some questions were developed by the researchers. The questionnaire includes: age, sex, parity, BMI, educational level, history of UTI, smoking, chronic medical illness (Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, Neurological diseases) and menopause. Questions were divided into two categories:
1. About storage symptoms (urgency, nocturia, frequency, and urge incontinence).
2. Severity of symptoms and its effect on Quality of life.
Results
Data were analyzed from 566 responders who answered the survey completely through either electronic or paper form. Most responding women were non-smoker (86%), college-graduated (77%); and in childbearing age (87%) with regular menstruation (84%). Overweight or obesity prevalence was 63% in this cohort. Frequent UTI symptoms and other comorbidities (DM, hypertension and neurologic disorders) were uncommon (18%) and (12%), respectively. The prevalence of storage symptoms was common (urgency =62%, frequency =74%, nocturia =75% and urge incontinence =43%). These OAB storage symptoms were associated with negative effects on quality of life; 66% of the respondents had to wake-up at night and/or look for a restroom in public places to urinate. Using ordinal regression model to study risk factors association with either urgency or nocturia; only the number of children was statistically significant as an independent variable; p value < 0.05. Both age and weight were not significant in this regression model.
Interpretation of results
To our knowledge this is the first cross-sectional, epidemiological study in women aged above 18 years in Saudi Arabia to assess prevalence of OAB, risk factors and impact on quality of life. The study shows that OAB is very common and higher than published international data in other countries. All responders had at least one storage symptom with Nocturia being most prevalent with 75%. More than 2/3 of responders reported negative impact on quality of life. In our study, parity was the only risk factor which was statistically significant but surprisingly neither age, weight nor smoking had any significant difference.