Storage symptom burden in women with obesity is associated more with age and smoking than metabolic biomarkers: prospectively collected cross-sectional data

Abstract

Obesity frequently coexists with insulin resistance and lower urinary tract symptoms, but the independent contribution of metabolic abnormalities among women with obesity is uncertain. We analyzed prospectively collected cross-sectional data from 139 women with body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m 2 who underwent anthropometric, biochemical, and structured urinary symptom assessment. Storage symptom burden was measured using a locally modified six-item set based on the OAB-q Short Form symptom-bother domain; because wording and scoring differed from the validated instrument, the resulting 6–36 score was treated as study-specific. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s α = 0.907). Symptom burden showed weak nominal correlations with HOMA-IR and HDL cholesterol, but neither remained significant after false-discovery-rate sensitivity adjustment. After multivariable adjustment, age (β = 1.81 per SD, 95% CI 0.47–3.15) and current smoking (β = 3.60, 95% CI 0.33–6.88) were associated with greater symptom burden, whereas no individual metabolic marker was independently associated with the primary outcome. No prespecified predictor was independently associated with nocturia ≥ 2/night. Sensitivity analyses did not materially alter the metabolic conclusions. Age and smoking may therefore be useful prompts for urinary symptom assessment in obesity-clinic practice, although these cross-sectional associations are non-causal.