Washington, April 27 (IANS) Patients suffering from nocturia, the need to urinate at least twice during the night, may have a significantly increased risk of mortality.
Research has shown that there was a significantly increased mortality rate in elderly patients living in a Japanese assisted-living facility who suffered from nocturia, relative to other residents.

Researchers conducted a comprehensive assessment of 788 residents aged 70 years or older to determine incidence of nocturia. Using data from a national health insurance system, they assessed differences in survival stratified by presence or absence of nocturia over three years.

The models were adjusted to control for age, sex, body-mass index (BMI), diabetes, hypertension, history of coronary heart disease, nephropathy, alcohol consumption, and use of tranquilisers, hypnotics or diuretics.

“Night-time urination is not necessarily just a matter of getting older. Patients should talk to their doctor about what may be causing this,” said Anthony Y. Smith, an American Urological Association (AUA) spokesman, in a release.

“There may be a very serious yet treatable condition involved,” he said.

These findings were presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the AUA.