Background: We conducted this study to estimate the prevalence of pediatric lower urinary tract symptoms (pLUTS) in a US privately-insured pediatric population who are 18 years of age or older by age, sex, race/ethnicity from 2003-2014. This has not been previously described in the literature.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed Optum's de-identifed Clinformatics® Data Mart Database database between 2003-2014. A pLUTS patient was defined by the presence of ≥ 1 pLUTS-related ICD-9 diagnosis code between the age of 6-20 years. Neurogenic bladder, renal transplant and structural urologic disease diagnoses were excluded. Prevalence by year was calculated as a proportion of pLUTS patients among the total population at risk. Variables reviewed included age, sex, race, geographic region, household factors and clinical comorbidities including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), constipation, and sleep apnea. Point of service (POS) was calculated as a proportion of pLUTS-related claims associated with a POS compared to the total claims at all POS in the time period.
Results: We identified 282,427 unique patients with ≥ 1 claim for pLUTS between the ages of 6-20 years from 2003-2014. Average prevalence during this period was 0.92%, increasing from 0.63% in 2003 to 1.13% in 2014. Mean age was 12.15 years. More patients were female (59.80%), white (65.97%), between 6-10 years old (52.18%) and resided in the Southern US (44.97%). Within a single household, 81.71% reported ≤ 2 children, and 65.53% reported ≥ 3 adults. 16.88% had a diagnosis of ADHD, 19.49% had a diagnosis of constipation and 3.04% had a diagnosis of sleep apnea. 75% of pLUTS-related claims were recorded in an outpatient setting.
Conclusions: Families consistently seek medical care in the outpatient setting for pLUTS. The demographic and clinical characteristics of our cohort reflect prior literature. Future studies can help define temporal relationships between household factors and onset of disease as well as characterize pLUTS-related healthcare resource utilization. Additional work is required in publicly-insured populations.
Keywords: Lower urinary tract symptoms; pediatrics; population health research.