The impact of overactive bladder on mental health, work productivity and health‐related quality of life in the UK and Sweden: results from EpiLUTS

Abstract

Study Type – Symptom prevalence (prospective cohort) Level of Evidence 1b OBJECTIVE: • To examine the prevalence and burden of overactive bladder (OAB) with bother in the UK and Sweden compared to OAB without bother and no/minimal OAB/lower urinary tract (LUTS) symptoms, respectively. PATIENTS AND METHODS: • A cross‐sectional population‐representative survey was conducted via the Internet in the UK, Sweden and USA. • Participants rated the frequency and bother of OAB and LUTS. Patient outcomes included the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire Short Form, Patient Perception of Bladder Condition, Short Form‐12, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale–Anxiety and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale–Depression, as well as questions about treatment seeking and work productivity. • OAB was defined as urgency at least sometimes or the presence of urinary urgency incontinence. Three subgroups were compared: no/minimal symptoms, OAB without bother and OAB with bother. • Analyses were conducted by gender and country using general linear and logistic regression models to examine bothersome OAB and treatment seeking. RESULTS: • Survey response was 59.2%; 10 000 people (4724 men and 5276 women) participated. • The prevalence of OAB with bother at least ‘somewhat’ was 10.9% and 14.6% for men in the UK and Sweden, and 22.5% and 33.7% for women in the UK and Sweden, respectively. • Men and women with bothersome OAB were significantly more likely to seek treatment, report the lowest levels of health‐related quality of life and work productivity and the highest levels of anxiety and depression compared to those with no/minimal symptoms and OAB without bother. • Greater symptom severity of urgency, urgency urinary incontinence, frequency, nocturia, and increasing levels of anxiety were strongly predictive of OAB bother in both men and women. • Predictors of treatment seeking included frequency, bother as a result of urgency, and lower levels of depressive symptoms in men, and frequency, nocturia and urgency in women. CONCLUSIONS: • OAB is common in the UK and Sweden, and women are more likely to be affected then men. • The impact of OAB is evident across generic and condition‐specific domains of health‐related quality of life.