BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - Nocturia not only affects quality of life, but also leads to bone fracture, decreased QOL, and increased risk of death in the elderly. The relation between nocturia and metabolic syndrome has been reported, thus diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease may be risk factors for nocturia. Nocturia Quality-of-Life questionnaire (nQOL) is a disease-specific questionnaire specifically based on nocturia. In this study, nocturia-related QOL was investigated in outpatients in Japan using the N-QOL, and the relationships of N-QOL scores with nighttime frequency of more than 2 times and fall, or about to fall, during the nighttime were investigated. Our results showed that the N-QOL score was significantly lower in patients with underlying diseases such as OAB, BPH, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease compared to those who did not have these diseases (all p < 0.001). It has been reported that nighttime voiding twice or more at night may be highly bothersome, and thus symptomatic.
Our results suggest that a score on the N-QOL of ≤90 indicates a possible influence of nocturia twice or more and that a score of ≤ 80 indicates a risk of falling. Therefore, N-QOL < 90 might be influenced on the worsening of daily life. It is interesting that 10-year increase in age and OAB in all subjects were significant risk factors for N-QOL ≤ 90, but BPH did not appear to be a risk factor.
We conclude that the N-QOL may be a useful tool for evaluating the influence of nocturia on daily life and for examining therapeutic effects on the risk of bone fracture due to nocturia.
Written by:
Tomonori Yamanishi, MD as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Department of Urology, Continence Center, Dokkyo Medical University, 880 Kitakobayashi, Mibu, Tochigi, 321-0293, Japan, e-mail:
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