The Influence of Dietary Habits on Male Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: Differential Influence of Water Intake on Voiding Symptoms and Storage Symptoms.

Purpose: To investigate the dietary factors affecting male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).

Materials and methods: This retrospective study analyzed men who underwent health check-ups. The men who completed the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and a dietary questionnaire with 19 items were included in the study. Men with a history of medication for LUTS were excluded from the study. The influences of each dietary habit on total IPSS, voiding symptoms, storage symptoms and quality of life were evaluated separately. Dietary risk group was defined by the number of significant dietary risk factors.

Results: The mean age of 28,463 men was 52.2±8.7 years. After adjusting for age and other conditions, 13 dietary habits (for examples; overeating, preference for salty food, frequently eating sweets, and infrequently eating vegetables, etc.) were the significant risk factors related to worse total IPSS scores. For voiding symptoms, storage symptoms, and quality of life scores, 14, 12, and 12 dietary habits were identified as independent risk factors, respectively. Drinking four or more cups of water per day was related to worse storage symptoms (odds ratio [OR]=1.12, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]=1.09-1.22), but better voiding symptoms (OR=0.90, 95% CI=0.86-0.95). The newly developed dietary risk group showed that total and subtotal IPSS scores increased by the number of bad dietary habits in all age groups, respectively.

Conclusions: This study showed that dietary habits had a significant impact on LUTS. The amount of water consumed had a differential influence on each subdomain symptom.