Nocturia and effect on the quality of life. A study at Ramathibodi Hospital

Objective: To investigate the impact and the incidence of nocturia on the quality of life of patients in Ramathibodi Hospital. Materials and Methods: This study was a hospital-based cross-sectional study to measure the QoL of nocturia patients using a Nocturia Quality-of-Life questionnaire (N-QoL). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to explore internal consistency. Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the strength of the relationship between the scores for each item. Uni- and Multivariate analyses were used to explore the significant parameters. Results: One hundred and fifty-five nocturia patient were included in the study analysis. Most of the questionnaire respondents were male (80.65%) and the vast majority had at least 1 underlying disease requiring long-term follow-up by a physician (86.45%) with a median urination of 3 times per night and a 3 hour median first urination after retiring to bed. From our study questionnaire, most patients responded that they had moderate to good quality of life with a minor inconvenience from nocturia, requiring them to nap during the day on some days. An increasing frequency of urination per night and a first urination of less than 2 hours after retiring is significantly related to low levels of energy the next day, sleep deprivation, worry over treatment options, overall inconvenience and a reduction in quality of life. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated nocturia patients experience a significant reduction in quality of life, and a decrease in quality of sleep. The incidence of urination in the night and the timing of the first urination after bed had more impact on overall quality of life.