Psychosocial Impact of Overactive Bladder Symptoms among Adults in a Selected Hospital at Mangaluru

Abstract

Introduction: Overactive bladder symptoms (OABS) have a detrimental impact on mental health and social
wellbeing. The apprehensions about frequent voiding, leakage and wetting, or unavailability of toilet facility
which leads to embarrassment, anxiety, stress, social isolation and disrupts the daily activities of the people.
Besides the psychosocial impact of OABS is seldom studied in south India. Understanding the impact on
the psychosocial aspects among adults is vital in controlling and managing OABS. Therefore the aim of this
study was to determine the psychosocial impact of overactive bladder symptoms among adults.
Method: An exploratory descriptive study design was adopted .The sample consisted of 142 male adults of
35-75 years of age recruited using purposive sampling from the department of Urology in selected Hospitals
at Mangaluru. The subjects were interviewed for baseline Proforma, Overactive bladder symptom score
(OABSS) and self reported questionnaire on Psychosocial impact of overactive bladder symptoms. The data
was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The subjects 52.8% had moderate and 31.0% had severe forms of OABS. Overall psychosocial
impact was 80±10.9, the Mean percentage 76.9 shows that OABS are severely affected the adults
psychosocially. There was significant association between Psychosocial Impact of Overactive bladder
symptoms and selected Demographic Variables such as age (p?0.024), Education (p?0.03) and Marital
status (p?0.02) as well as there was a high positive correlation between OABS and Psychosocial impact of
adults with OABS (r =0.7. r2 value is 0.467).
Conclusion: The OABS have a major psychosocial impact in adult’s life; the stress, frustration, hopelessness,
uncomfortable to travel and attend social gathering and disturbed sleep.