Drinking Frequency but not Years may be Associated with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: Result from a Large Cross-Sectional Survey in Chinese Men

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the effect of the drinking frequency and years on lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in a large Chinese male population.

Methods

The current data were obtained from a consecutive series of 3,229 men aged 18–79 who participated in a routine physical examination in Fangchenggang First People’s Hospital, Guangxi, China. During a face-to-face interview, the detailed demographic variables about alcohol consumption, potential confounding factors were collected. LUTS were assessed by International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and defined as total LUTS, irritative (IRR) and obstructive (OBS) symptoms, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk of total LUTS, IRR and OBS symptoms affected by alcohol consumption.

Results

The prevalence of moderate to severe LUTS was 8.3% and apparently increased with age (P<0.001). A significant distribution presented in age, alcohol consumption, BMI, cigarette smoking, education attainment and hypertension among different strata of LUTS severity (P<0.05). Men who drank 1–2 times per week were less likely to have OBS symptoms (OR=0.45, 95%CI=0.29–0.70) regardless of age (OR=0.52, 95%CI=0.33–0.82) or multivariate adjusted (OR=0.52, 95%CI=0.33–0.83). Nevertheless, we did not observe a significant negative or positive association presented between drinking years and the risk of total LUTS, OBS and IRR symptoms.

Conclusion

The current results imply that moderate drinking frequency may be protective against LUTS, and drinking years did not relate to worsening or improving LUTS.

Keywords:

• observational study
• alcohol consumption
• urinary tract
• epidemiology

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere thanks to the local research teams from Fangchenggang First People’s Hospital, Fangchenggang, China, for their contribution to the survey and all study subjects for participating in this study.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

The FAMHES survey had received the approval from ethics committee in First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (Approval number: 2008 -KY-004) and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to data analysis, drafting or revising the article, gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program (2017JJA140780y), Basic Ability Promotion Project for Young and Middle-aged Teachers of Guangxi College (2017KY0125), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0908000).