Prevalence and Trends in Overactive Bladder Among Women in the United States, 2005-2020

To examine the current prevalence and trends of OAB among US adult women and correlations between OAB and potential risk factors.

The study used the nationally representative data from NHANES. Seven cycles' data on OAB from 2005-2020 were analyzed. The weighted prevalence and corresponding 95% confidence intervals of OAB in these seven cycles were calculated. The temporal trends in OAB were investigated by linear regression. Multivariate-adjusted weighted logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the correlation between OAB and several participants' factors.

The overall prevalence of OAB had a significant increase from 18.7% in the 2005-2006 cycle to 22.1% in the 2017-2020 cycle (difference 3.4% [95% CI 2.11-4.69%)]; P_trend < 0.001). For subgroup analysis, the prevalence of OAB experienced a significant increase among women: aged ≥ 60 years, non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m². Older age, non-Hispanic Black, lower educational level, higher family poverty ratio, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, sleep disorder, other chronic comorbidities, less intense recreational activity, poorer health condition, history of pregnancies, and use of female hormone were independent risk factors of OAB.

The contemporary prevalence of OAB was high, affecting 22.1% of US women, and the estimated overall prevalence showed an upward trend from 2005 to 2020.