Publications by authors named "Sarah Hortsch"
Feasibility of Home Collection for Urogenital Microbiome Samples.
Urogynecology (Phila)
November 2024
Importance: Feasibility of home urogenital microbiome specimen collection is unknown.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate successful sample collection rates from home and clinical research centers.
Study Design: Adult women participants enrolled in a multicentered cohort study were recruited to an in-person research center evaluation, including self-collected urogenital samples.
Introduction And Hypothesis: Caffeinated, alcoholic, artificially sweetened, carbonated, and acidic beverages are pervasive and consumed in large quantities. Reputedly, these beverages are "irritating to the bladder" and result in heightened void frequency, but prior studies lack control for intake volume. We tested the null hypothesis that women recruited from the community who demonstrate overactive bladder symptoms will show no difference by groups in void frequency when one group is instructed to replace listed beverages by substituting non-irritants (emphasis on water or milk) and the other group is instructed in healthy eating.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Common advice for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) such as frequency, urgency, and related bother includes elimination of potentially irritating beverages (coffee, tea, alcohol, and carbonated and/or artificially sweetened beverages). The purpose of this study was to determine compliance with standardized instruction to eliminate these potentially irritating beverages, whether LUTS improved after instruction, and whether symptoms worsened with partial reintroduction.
Design: The 3-phase fixed sequence design was (1) baseline, (2) eliminate potentially irritating beverages listed above, and (3) reintroduce at 50% of baseline volume, with a washout period between each 3-day phase.