Elderly men's quality of life and lower urinary tract symptoms: an intricate relationship

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) on the quality of life (QoL) in a group of elderly men. Materials and Methods: Observational clinical study contained 200 men recruited between March-September 2008 in the community and Urology and Geriatrics ambulatories. The data collected included health and sociodemographic conditions; the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS); an anxiety/depression inventory; the World Health Organization Quality of Life -Bref and -Old questionnaires (WHOQoL). Participants were classified according to IPSS: Group I (moderate/severe symptoms) and Group II (absence/mild symptoms) and 100 men were included in each group. Results: The groups were statistically similar in sociodemographic, morbidity, and anxiety/depression scores. Both QoL scales showed significant lower median scores in group I in all parameters, except the global subjective self-evaluation of QoL. The domains social and environmental relations presented the most significative differences (p < 0.0005) in both questionnaires, and final mean WHOQoL-Old score was lower in group I (p < 0.0005). Conclusions: For elderly men, moderate to severe LUTS do significantly impact almost all parameters of QoL proposed by the WHO, especially social and environmental relations.