Racial Disparities in Nocturia Persist Regardless of BMI Among American Women

It is crucial to understand the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in nocturia prevalence to appropriately manage nocturia.

Nocturia is associated with increased body mass index (BMI) and is most prevalent in Black and Hispanic women, who also have the highest and second highest prevalence of obesity, respectively. We sought to better understand the association of nocturia with BMI category by race and ethnicity in U.S. women.

This was a cross-sectional study using publicly available data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2005 to 2018. We estimated the prevalence of moderate to severe nocturia (defined as 2 or more episodes of nighttime urination) by BMI category within each racial and ethnic (Black, White, Hispanic, and other) group of adult women. Logistic regression was performed to determine the odds ratio of nocturia by race.

The odds of nocturia was 2.25 (2.04-2.49) for Black women, 1.27 (1.15-1.4) for Hispanic women and 0.96 (0.82-1.13) for other women compared to White women. After accounting for BMI, socioeconomic status and comorbidities, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.76 (1.42-2.16) for Black women, 1.1 (.0.88-1.38) for Hispanic women, and 0.81 (0.5-1.29) for other women compared to White women.

Black women were nearly twice as likely to have nocturia than White women. The increased odds of nocturia, while not sustained for Hispanic women, persisted for Black women regardless of socioeconomic status, BMI, and comorbidities. Our study suggests that there are factors other than weight driving the prevalence of nocturia in Black women that require further investigation.