Sleep and health-related quality of life in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic obstruction compared to the general population and patients with inguinal hernia.

Objective: To determine whether there are differences in the quantity and quality of sleep, including sleep efficiency and insomnia, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of benign prostatic obstruction (BPO), men from the general population and patients with inguinal hernia.

Material And Methods: The designs were descriptive and comparative. The groups consisted of 239 patients aged 45-80 years who were referred to urological departments with LUTS suggestive of benign prostatic obstruction. The comparison groups consisted of 213 randomly selected men from the general population, stratified according to age and geographical region, and 200 patients with inguinal hernia. The setting was one university and two general hospitals. The method was self-administered questionnaires about demography, comorbidity, sleep and health-related quality of life. Further, patients with LUTS answered questions about urinary symptoms and disease-specific quality of life.

Results: The prevalence of insomnia was 40%, 26% and 19% and the prevalence of sleep efficiency < 85% was 49%, 38.5% and 31% in the LUTS, general population and hernia groups, respectively. The median number of nocturnal micturitions was 2, 1 and 1. In the LUTS group (n = 216), 47% had IPSS 8-19 and 44% had ≥ 20 points. The HRQoL was significantly impaired in patients with LUTS compared with one or both of the comparison groups (p values < 0.05).

Conclusions: Patients with LUTS suggestive of BPO had significantly impaired sleep, a higher prevalence of insomnia and significantly impaired HRQoL compared with one or both of the comparison groups.