The Association between Depression and Overactive Bladder: A Cross-Sectional Study of NHANES 2011–2018

The relationship between depression and overactive bladder (OAB) is unknown. This study aimed to explore the association between depression and OAB in the U.S. population.

A cross-sectional study was performed utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2018. Depression status and severity among participants were assessed via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The OAB symptoms of the participants were assessed via the OAB symptom score (OABSS) scale. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the association between depression and OAB.

A total of 19,359 participants were enrolled in the study, with 91.01% (N = 17618) exhibiting minimal or mild depression, 7.92% (N = 1533) presenting with moderate or moderately severe depression, and 1.07% (N = 208) identified as severe depression. The overall prevalence of OAB was 21.62%. We found that depression was positively associated with OAB before and after adjustments for all covariates. After adjusting for covariates, individuals with moderate or moderately severe depression presented an elevated risk of OAB (OR = 2.52, 95% CI 2.11–3.01, p < 0.01), while those with severe depression presented a greater risk (OR = 3.74 95% CI 2.37–5.90, p < 0.01) than did participants with minimal or mild depression. Age may modify the correlation between depression and OAB.

Our study highlighted a positive association between depression and OAB in the U.S. population, and the association between depression and OAB was modified by age. However, more studies are needed in the future to verify the associations between depression and OAB and their underlying mechanisms.