The positive correlation between parity and overactive bladder in American adults: the mediating effect of body mass...

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common condition that significantly impacts quality of life, particularly among women. Multiple parities may exert long-term adverse impacts on female pelvic floor function, thereby escalating the risk of bladder dysfunction. Nevertheless, the present research results regarding the relationship between parity and OAB demonstrate inconsistency. Therefore, this study employed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database spanning the years 2005 to 2018 to examine the relationship between parity and the risk of OAB while considering various influencing factors.

This study utilized data from the NHANES database spanning the years 2005 to 2018. In addition to employing mediation analysis and threshold effect methods to investigate the nonlinear association, it also examined the independent relationship between the number of parities and OAB through multivariable logistic regression and subgroup analyses.

A total of 12,408 participants were included, with OAB identified based on Overactive Bladder Symptom Score. The results indicated that the higher the number of parities, the higher the prevalence of OAB (OR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.04-2.83, P = 0.033). Subgroup analysis revealed that the interaction between BMI and hypertension on the prevalence of OAB was significant (P for interaction 0.027 and 0.039). Additionally, BMI was positively correlated with OAB (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.03-1.05, P < 0.0001), and mediated 13.65% of the relationship between the number of parities and OAB.

This research discovered that an increase in the number of parities was significantly correlated with an elevated prevalence of OAB, and BMI played a partial mediating role therein, indicating that weight management among women with multiple parities might be conducive to reducing the risk of OAB.