Bother arising from urinary frequency in women

Abstract

Patients commonly express bother with the symptom of frequent urination. The relationship between actual voiding frequency and this symptom is undocumented. We reviewed records of 200 women who had completed 24-hour frequency-volume charts, and had indicated their degree of bother with urinary frequency utilizing the short form of the Urogenital Distress Inventory. The degree of bother was correlated with daytime and nighttime voiding frequency, maximum functional capacity, mean voided volume, and demographic variables. Among 200 women, 180 (90%) indicated at least a minor degree of bother with urinary frequency. A voiding frequency of eight or more times in 24 hours was reported by 166 (83%) of women. Among the 34 women voiding fewer than eight times/24 hours, 26 (76%) reported bother with urinary frequency. There was large variation in the degree of bother reported at a given voiding frequency. Postmenopausal women without hormone replacement therapy (HRT) recorded more nighttime voids than those on HRT. Among postmenopausal women without HRT, mean voided volume and maximum functional capacity were inversely related to patient age. Our study suggests that the currently utilized cutoff value of eight daily voids to define urinary frequency, may not be helpful in the management of women in this country. A racially diverse study of the voiding habits of asymptomatic North American women is mandated.

Symptom-specific efficacy of tolterodine extended release in patients with overactive bladder: the IMPACT trial

“…Moreover, in our study, with the exception of patients aged ≥65 years, daytime frequency, not urgency, was cited as the most bothersome symptom for both continent and incontinent patients. FitzGerald et al (32) found that 73% of women who reported more than eight micturitions per day were moderately or greatly bothered by this symptom, which is consistent with our results.…”

Epidemiology of prolapse and incontinence questionnaire: validation of a new epidemiologic survey

“…Several authors have shown that the degree of bother, as measured subjectively, by episode frequency or by volume of urine lost, correlates positively with care seeking behavior among women with urinary incontinence (UI) [36][37][38]. Additionally, Fitzgerald and colleagues have shown that in UI, the likelihood that the patient will meet the formal objective criteria for the diagnosis of the condition increases as the severity of the symptoms increase [39]. When comparing our blinded clinical evaluation of subjects to their answers on the EPIQ, we found that the women who fulfilled the objective clinical criteria indicated a substantially higher bother score for that specific domain than did the women who did not meet those criteria.…”

How frequent are overactive bladder symptoms in women with urodynamic verification of an overactive bladder?

“…Symptoms of urinary frequency, nocturia, and urgency are common among adult women. Frequency, urgency, and urge incontinence alone or in combination form the basic group of symptoms of OAB (14,15). OAB is a common and distressing problem known to adversely affect the quality of life because of these symptoms (16).…”

“…Urgency is a pivot symptom, according to the OAB definition (1). Some studies reported a significant association between urgency and DOA (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). However, Brummen et al (5) reported a main association between frequency and DOA, while urgency was associated poorly with DOA.…”