Overactive Bladder Syndrome in Young Adults: Prevalence and Impacts on Quality of Life

Introduction: Overactive bladder syndrome is a clinical condition that affects both males and females and has a significant negative impact on the quality of life. Overactive bladder syndrome refers to a chronic condition of the urinary bladder characterized by a constellation of predominantly storage lower urinary tract symptoms. Overactive bladder syndrome is a clinical diagnosis that suggests significant bladder dysfunction, failure of urine storage and often associated with detrusor over activity during the bladder filling phase. The etiology and pathophysiology remains largely unknown with studies suggesting possible multifactorial causes. Despite the appreciable burden on young adults, several studies underestimated prevalence of overactive bladder syndrome amongst young adults. Overactive Bladder Symptom Score is a reliable and valid tool in symptom assessment and re-evaluation following treatment. This study is focus in finding the prevalence of overactive bladder syndrome in young adults as well as the impact on QoL. Methodology: This is a prospective randomized cross-sectional study. By simple random sampling, consenting participants who met the inclusion criteria were recruited for the study. A structured questionnaire (overactive bladder syndrome score- OABSS) was utilized in assessment of symptom severity and impact. The Completed questionnaire/proforma of all the recruited subjects were collated and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 and P values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 306 individuals participated in the study. One hundred and eighty (58.8%) participants were females while 126 (41.2%) were males. The age range of the participants was 20 – 40 years with a mean age of 29.8 +/- 5.6. The overall OABSS ranges from 0 – 15 with a mean score of 2.09+/-2.05. Two hundred and sixty four participants (93.14%) had OABSS of 0 – 5 which represents mild or no symptoms, 5.88% had moderate symptoms while 0.98% had severe symptoms. Females report significantly higher OABSS than males. The mean score of OABS in females was 2.52 while the mean score of OABS in males was 1.48. Conclusion: Overactive Bladder Syndrome refers to a chronic embarrassing condition of the urinary bladder. Despite the appreciable burden on young adults, it is more prevalent in females. It remains an evolving pathology which becomes more manifest with aging and often underreported amongst younger individual for obvious reasons. Though management could be challenging, exiting prospects via awareness and innovations can never be overemphasized.