High risk of lower urinary tract symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) and the risk of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (including each subtype: constipation, diarrhea, and mixed) compared to women in the general population. Methods: Between January 2014 and December 2015, consecutive adult female patients diagnosed with IBS at the outpatient clinic of the University of Salerno and healthy women with regular bowel habits were enrolled in the study. At baseline, we checked for UTI with a dipstick test and questioned patients about the presence of LUTS in the previous 24 h. Results: We enrolled 141 IBS patients and 91 healthy controls in the study. There was no difference in the prevalence of UTI between IBS patients and healthy controls (4.9 vs 3.3%, p = 0.5). When we excluded patients with UTI, we found a 2.79 higher risk of increased urinary frequency [odds ratio (OR) 2.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.37–5.68], a 2.68 higher risk of urinary urgency (OR 2.68, 95% CI 1.04–6.91), and more than three times the risk of having dysuria (OR 3.25, 95% CI 1.06–9.97) in IBS women compared to healthy controls. The risk of having at least one urinary symptom was independent of IBS subtype and IBS severity. Conclusions: Our study shows that IBS women have a similar risk of UTI compared to healthy women even if they complain more of LUTS, independently of IBS subtype and severity.