18 May Poor Sleep May Contribute To Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Men

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alexander W. Pastuszak, MD, PhD
Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery
Scott Department of Urology
Jason Malcolm Scovell
Medical Student, Ofc SA-BCM Students
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Sleep quality is an important component of overall health, and can both exacerbate health issues and be impaired by health problems. Shift workers, primarily those who do not work standard daylight shifts, are prone to sleep problems, a significant concern in light of the fact that up to 25% of the U.S. workforce is comprised of shift workers. As men age, the prevalence of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS), which include urgency, frequency, waking up at night to urinate, and difficulties with urination, increases.  Unsurprisingly, men with LUTS report poor sleep in part due to awakening repeatedly during the night. We studied a group of male shift workers, who we believe to be an ‘at-risk’ population, and found that not only do the men who report worse sleep quality have worse Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, but also men who report difficulty falling asleep have more severe LUTS than those who do not. This latter point is significant, given that most men with LUTS can fall asleep without difficulty, but then awaken repeatedly throughout the night, and suggests that sleep difficulties in this population may be resulting in Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms rather than LUTS exclusively resulting in sleep difficulties.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: Worse sleep quality in patients with regards to falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting back to sleep once awakened is associated with more severe Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in our study. We cannot conclude whether poor sleep quality is exacerbating LUTS with, although the relationship between difficulty falling asleep and more severe Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms suggests that poor sleep may indeed be a contributing factor.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Given that sleep is important to mitigating the effects of numerous bodily dysfunctions, and sleep optimization can be achieved through simple lifestyle interventions, future studies investigating the causes of why patients who have more difficulty falling asleep report more severe LUTS will be important. If poor sleep is, in fact, exacerbating LUTS, simple changes to sleep habits may be an effective intervention to reduce LUTS. Similarly, if LUTS are resulting in difficulty with falling asleep, aggressive treatment of these symptoms may be important in improving sleep quality, which has such an important effect on overall health.

Citation: Abstract Presented at the 2015 American Urological Society

PD39-06 IMPAIRED SLEEP QUALITY PREDICTS MORE SIGNIFICANT LOWER URINARY TRACT SYMPTOMS IN MALE SHIFT WORKERS

Pastuszak, Alexander W. et al.
The Journal of Urology , Volume 193 , Issue 4 , e832

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander W. Pastuszak, MD, PhD and, & Jason Malcolm Scovell (2015). Poor Sleep May Contribute To Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Men MedicalResearch.com

Last Updated on June 4, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD