Excessive accumulation of visceral fat is associated with lower urinary symptoms including overactive bladder in female patients

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationship between visceral fat accumulation and lower urinary tract symptoms in female patients.

Methods: In this single-center study, we enrolled all women who underwent screening abdominal computed tomography 3 months before the study, irrespective of whether they experienced lower urinary tract symptoms. The Overactive Bladder Symptom Score was used to assess subjective symptoms. Uroflowmetry and ultrasound assessment of post-void residual urine were carried out to assess objective signs. We analyzed the relationship between lower urinary tract symptoms and various body fat accumulation parameters, including visceral fat area, visceral fat volume and total abdominal fat volume, assessed using computed tomography scans.

Results: A total of 182 patients were divided into the overactive bladder (n = 71, 39.0%) and the non-overactive bladder (n = 111, 61.0%) groups. The visceral fat area, visceral fat volume and visceral fat volume/total abdominal fat volume values were all significantly higher in the overactive bladder group than in the non-overactive bladder group (P < 0.001). Of these parameters, the visceral fat volume/total abdominal fat volume ratio showed the strongest correlation with the total Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (r = 0.394, P < 0.001). The maximum urine flow rate correlated negatively with the visceral fat volume/total abdominal fat volume value (visceral fat volume/total abdominal fat volume r = -0.289, P < 0.001). Subsequent multivariate analysis showed that a high visceral fat volume/total abdominal fat volume value, age and metabolic syndrome-related diseases were independent risk factors for the presence of overactive bladder.

Conclusions: Excessive accumulation of visceral fat is independently associated with overactive bladder in females.

Keywords: lower urinary tract symptoms; overactive bladder; visceral fat.