TY - JOUR PY - 2007// TI - Is Abuse Causally Related to Urologic Symptoms? Results from the Boston Area Community Health (BACH) Survey JO - European urology A1 - Link, Carol L. A1 - Lutfey, Karen E. A1 - Steers, William D. A1 - McKinlay, John B. SP - 397 EP - 406 VL - 52 IS - 2 N2 - OBJECTIVES: We investigated (1) whether sexual, physical, or emotional abuse experienced either as a child or as an adolescent/adult is associated with symptoms of urinary frequency, urgency, and nocturia, and (2) the extent to which the observed association between abuse and urologic symptoms may be causal. METHODS: Analyses are based on data from the Boston Area Community Health (BACH) survey, a community-based epidemiologic study of many different urologic symptoms and risk factors. BACH used a multistage stratified cluster sample to recruit 5506 adults, aged 30-79 yr (2301 men, 3205 women; 1770 black [African American], 1877 Hispanic, and 1859 white respondents). RESULTS: The symptoms considered are common, with 33% of BACH respondents reporting urinary frequency, 12% reporting urgency, and 28% reporting nocturia. All three symptoms are positively associated with childhood and adolescent/adult sexual, physical, and emotional abuse (p<0.05), with abuse significantly increasing the odds of urinary frequency by a factor ranging from 1.6 to 1.9, the odds of urgency by a factor from 2.0 to 2.3, and the odds of nocturia by a factor from 1.3 to 1.5. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses extend previous work. First, we show a strong association between abuse and urinary frequency, urgency, and nocturia in a community-based random sample. Second, we move beyond discussion of statistical association and find considerable evidence to suggest that the relationship between abuse and these symptoms may be causal.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0302-2838 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2007.03.024 ID - ref1 ER -