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BACKGROUND:
Most urologists consider nocturia to be primarily a male problem related to BPH. However, there is increasing evidence that nocturia is a significant problem in older women as well suggesting that multiple factors contribute to nocturia in both men and women. Sleep disorders of all types generally increase with aging. We explore the associations between urinary symptoms, sleep disruption and daytime sleepiness. We conducted a survey of older patients visiting the urology clinic at our hospital.
METHODS:
Three questionnaires were given to 291 older adults, 204 males (64.2±8.84 years) and 87 females (63.3±8.95 years). We used two validated sleep questionnaires, the PSQI and ESS, and also theAUASI. We compared the mean scores of the PSQI, ESS, and AUASI questionnaires by conducting Levene’s Test for equality of variances and a t-test for equality of means to investigate any sex-related differences in reported quality of sleep, daytime sleepiness, and urological complaints.
RESULTS:
The mean PSQI, ESS, and AUASI scores of men were 5.26±3.43, 5.94±4.31, and 11.73±7.97 respectively. The mean PSQI, ESS, and AUASI scores of women were 7.21±4.84, 5.91±4.75, and 14.83±10.0 respectively. The mean PSQI and AUASI scores of men and women were significantly different (p < 0.01). The mean ESS scores of men and women were not significantly different (p = 0.258).
CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings of women reporting lower quality of sleep agrees with the general literature. However, we found evidence that women had reported greater urinary complaints than men, which is contrary to most of the literature. The reported daytime sleepiness in men and women was similar. Our data suggest that nocturia occurs in both genders and is not always due to urologic etiologies.