Nocturia, Other Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Sleep Dysfunction in a Community-Dwelling Cohort of Men

To examine the influence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on nocturia, controlling for their shared co-morbidities, in a population of community-based middle aged to elderly men.

Participants were drawn from a randomly selected, community-dwelling cohort of men in Adelaide, Australia. Seven hundred and eight men (mean: 60.7 [41.6-88.2] years) who had polysomnography recordings, complete lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) measures (International Prostate Symptom Score), without prostate or bladder cancer and/or surgery, and no prior OSA diagnosis were selected. Nocturia was defined as ≥2 voids per main sleep. Unadjusted and multi-adjusted regression models of nocturia were combined with OSA, wake after sleep onset, total sleep period, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), and sleep quality (SQ) data, together with socio-demographic, and health-related factors.

Men with nocturia were found to have higher levels of OSA (32.2% [n = 65]), wake after sleep onset time (97.2 ± 52.9 minutes), sleep period (467.3 ± 58.4 minutes), EDS (18.2% [n = 37]), and poorer SQ (54.3% [n = 108]). Multiple-adjusted models showed nocturia was positively associated with OSA (odds ratio:1.64, 95% confidence interval [1.03,2.55]), EDS (1.72 [1.01,2.93]), and poorer SQ (1.65 [1.10,2.48]). Including other storage and voiding LUTS attenuated the effect of OSA and strengthened the association with EDS (2.44 [1.45,4.10] and 2.24 [1.19,4.22]), whereas voiding LUTS also strengthened the association with poorer SQ (2.61 [1.63,4.17]). Men with increasing nocturic frequency spent less time in N2 and rapid eye movement stage sleep.

Nocturia is strongly associated with OSA in community-based men. Nocturia also reduces sleep efficiency/SQ, N2, and rapid eye movement sleep time, while increasing EDS. Other LUTS increase EDS through non-OSA means.