How many people suffer from overactive bladder

Watch our short film below about the importance of speaking up about bladder leakage. NAFC is excited to debut a short film about coming to terms with overactive bladder and incontinence. About just how challenging it can be to admit that there's a problem. And also about how facing up to that reality can be an important first step towards drier days. Watch this short video about OAB, and about how not speaking up can create more problems than staying silent.

The first step toward treatment is to visit your doctor. Your doctor will conduct an evaluation and ask you many questions in order to provide an accurate diagnosis. In order to prepare for your visit, take a look at these tips , and visit our resource center for tools you can use to help your doctor determine the best treatment for you. Save Money On Absorbent Products! Those who take charge of their condition will discover a variety of treatment options to eliminate, reduce, and manage their condition.

Your physician can help prescribe options best suited to the specifics of your condition. This might include:. Dietary changes. Many foods, like citrus, spicy foods, caffeine, and sugar, can irritate the bladder. By taking note of the foods that trigger urinary urgency, you can then eliminate those foods from your diet, lessening the symptoms of overactive bladder.

A bladder diary a sheet that tracks what you eat and drink, and the leaks you experience can help with this. Download one here. Fluid management. With supervision from your physician, reducing the amount of dietary irritants e. Bladder retraining. Did you know that just like other muscles in your body, your bladder can be trained to hold urine for longer periods of time?

This can be an effective tool to help with urinary frequency and urinary urgency issues. In some cases, medication has proven to be effective. The result may be relief of urgency, but it may lead to urinary retention, which may require self-catheterization. Repeat injections may have to be performed as the bladder recovers from the toxin.

This may be 3 to 9 months later. Antimuscarinics and alpha-blockers are also used. These drugs may affect the brain, so there can be side effects, such as memory loss, reddening of the skin, loss of sight, decreased secretions causing individuals to feel extremely hot, and constipation. If you think you have OAB, see your health care provider. Surgery is not the only treatment for OAB. There are treatments for OAB that can help with symptoms.

There are treatments that many people with OAB find helpful. Click Here. Our Practice Career Opportunities Blog. For Patients. Overactive Bladder. Key Statistics About 33 million Americans have overactive bladder. Age-standardization was performed using the general population [21]. In general, overactive bladder was slightly more common among women than men after age-standardization Figure 2.

It was more common among women in younger ages while among men it was more common in those aged 60 years and above. Among men, the sharpest increase occurred at age 60—69 years while among women the increase was more steady. The mean increases in prevalence of overactive bladder were 2. There was no statistically significant departure from linearity in either sex Figure 2.

Age-standardized prevalence of overactive bladder symptoms among Finnish people aged 18—79 years, — The red circle represents subjects with overactive bladder without urgency incontinence excluding the area of the red oval representing subjects with overactive bladder with urgency incontinence.

The blue circle represents subjects with urinary frequency defined as more than eight voids per day and the green circle nocturia defined as more than one void per night. Without corrections for non-response, urgency was reported by 7. The corresponding figures for overactive bladder were 7. Further exclusion of men with benign prostatic hyperplasia decreased the non-corrected prevalence of overactive bladder to 6.

In our study, the prevalence of overactive bladder was 6. Subjects with overactive bladder reported more frequency and nocturia than those without overactive bladder, but the majority of subjects with frequency, or nocturia did not report overactive bladder. The reported prevalence of overactive bladder has varied widely in earlier studies due to differences in symptom assessment, study population, data collection, and definition of overactive bladder including exclusion criteria.

Most other studies have reported greater prevalence of overactive bladder than found in our study [3] — [10] , [14] — [16]. Some [3] — [5] , [15] — [17] but not all studies [6] have also reported more urgency incontinence among subjects with overactive bladder than we found. The definition of a symptom-defined disorder, such as overactive bladder, has a major impact on outcome [23].

We used the overactive bladder definition of International Continence Society, with urgency defined as sudden compelling desire to void as a sufficient criterion for overactive bladder [2]. This definition is idealistic and ambiguous. The qualitative definition disregarding severity or symptom bother makes it difficult to apply. The classification of a symptom including the time period during which the occurrence of symptoms is asked strongly influences the result, due in part to fluctuating character and very high remission rates of lower urinary tract symptoms, including urgency [24].

In the US study, those who reported four or more urgency episodes during the last 4 weeks and who also reported more than eight voids per day, or at least one coping strategy were classified as abnormal [4].

Some studies asked symptoms over a very long or unspecified time [3] , [9] , [16] , [18] whereas some did not exactly describe symptom classification, questions asked, or time concerning the symptom question [7] , [8] , [10] , [14] , [15]. We defined frequency as more than 8 voids per day and nocturia as more than one void per night as in some earlier reports [3] — [5] , [18] while those definitions are presumably clinically more relevant based on prevalences of frequency and nocturia in earlier studies [9] , [16] , [26] , [27].

On the other hand, the definition of frequency or nocturia has no effect on the prevalence of overactive bladder when based on the current definition. Identification of overactive bladder without excluding known reasons causing urgency can result in overestimate of prevalence.

We excluded subjects with urinary tract infection, genitourinary cancer, contracted bladder, or loop diuretics, as well as pregnant and puerperal women. In addition, we performed an analysis excluding men with benign prostatic hyperplasia as its effect on overactive bladder is unclear [1].

Some earlier studies did not report any exclusion criteria [6] , [8] — [10] , [14] , [16] — [18] , or excluded only subjects with urinary tract infection [3]. In the Austrian and Brazilian studies [5] , [7] , exclusions were slightly broader for example, diabetes than in our study and in the US study [4] even more extensive including diabetes, congestive heart failure, and excessive fluid intake. In the Austrian study, exclusions were performed for subjects with urgency, not for the whole study sample.

However, many of these studies have not been population-based [5] , [8] , [10] , [18] , whereas the population-based studies [3] , [4] , [6] , [7] , [9] , [14] — [17] have failed to: 1 apply the current definition of overactive bladder [3] , [4] , [6] , [14] , [15] , [17] , 2 report any exclusions [6] , [9] , [16] , [17] , 3 include all adult ages [3] , [6] , [7] , [9] , [15] , 4 include both sexes [17] , 5 report response rate or non-participants [3] , [7] , [9] , or 6 achieve good response rate [4] , [6] , [9] , [16] Table 3.

Furthermore, none of the earlier studies used non-response analysis to adjust for selection bias. On the other hand, as long as the symptom definition of overactive bladder is more like a description without any severity or bother assessment, there is no absolutely correct way to study the epidemiology of overactive bladder.

We used postal questionnaires to assess both the prevalence of urinary symptoms and co-morbidity. Overactive bladder is a symptom-defined condition requiring self-report. Mailed questionnaires reflect urodynamics better than interview-assisted questionnaire responses [28]. Furthermore, mailed questionnaires provide more reliable information than telephone surveys in several aspects, including higher participation [29].

Telephone surveys have commonly been used, including the most cited figures [3] , [4] , [9] , [16]. Even though most studies reported higher prevalence estimates than ours, the differences can be readily explained by dissimilarities in study procedures. For instance, Milsom and colleagues stated in their multinational study that They did not use the current definition of overactive bladder and excluded only subjects with urinary tract infection.

Hence, based on their study population 9. This estimate concurs with our results. As our sample did not include this age group, we extrapolated the prevalence rates for people aged 80 years or more. Based on extrapolated prevalence rates of overactive bladder among this age group Adjustment for people aged 80 years or more did not materially change prevalence rates as they were within the confidence limits of our estimates indicating that one in twelve 8.

However, our study population was Caucasian, which may diminish generalizability to other ethnicities. Most reported studies also used a study population that was mainly or totally Caucasian without proper comparison of prevalence of overactive bladder between different ethnicities [3] — [5] , [7] , [9] , [16] , [18]. Consequently, there is a need to examine the effect of ethnic differences on the prevalence of overactive bladder.

Our aim was to obtain a generalizable, unbiased estimate of the prevalence of overactive bladder in both genders. Our study population from youth to old age was representative of Finnish adults in terms of socio-demographic and anthropometric factors [27] , [30] and included people aged 18—79 years.

Age-standardization was used to improve comparability with other studies and generalizability to other populations. Current population distribution of Finland was used so as not to underestimate prevalences. We calculated corresponding figures also using European standard population [22] , but as the age structure was younger in that, the prevalence rates were slightly lower not reported.

To further improve the generalizability, we estimated corrected prevalence of overactive bladder with adjustment for people aged at least 80 years. After adjustment for people aged 80 years or more, the results remained substantially the same. A good response rate was achieved, but to further improve the validity, we estimated the corrected prevalence of overactive bladder with adjustment for selection bias due to non-response.

We corrected prevalence for selection bias on the assumption that overactive bladder was equally common among non-responders and in late responders. Our results suggest that the prevalence of overactive bladder has been overestimated so that the true prevalence is approximately half of that proposed earlier. Overactive bladder affects approximately one out of twelve adults of Caucasian origin.

We thank Drs. Funding: The study was funded by a grant from the Medical Research Fund of the Tampere University Hospital, and an unrestricted grant was accepted from Pfizer to cover the mailing and printing costs of questionnaires. The funding sources had no role in study design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. The authors' work was independent of the funders.

The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. PLoS One. Published online Feb 7. Kari A. Tammela , 1 , 2 Aila M. Teuvo L. Aila M.