Do gender, age or lifestyle factors affect responses to antimuscarinic treatment in overactive bladder patients?

AIMS

Gender, age, obesity, smoking and alcohol or caffeine intake have been shown or proposed to be risk factors for the prevalence and/or severity of the overactive bladder symptom complex (OAB) or related parameters. We have explored whether any of these factors affect the therapeutic response to a muscarinic receptor antagonist during routine clinical use.

METHODS

Data were analysed from 3766 OAB patients (77.1% woman, age 62.6 +/- 12.8 years) participating in an observational, open-label postmarketing surveillance study of the safety and efficacy of darifenacin. Multiple logistic regression models were applied to explore the effect of potential OAB risk factors on the darifenacin treatment-associated improvement of OAB symptoms, patient's subjective rating of bladder problems and global efficacy and tolerability.

RESULTS

Age and (less consistently) gender were statistically significantly correlated with efficacy parameters, but the extent of their impact was judged to be too small to be clinically relevant. Except for a very small effect of body mass index on urgency episode improvement, none of the lifestyle-associated factors had significant effects on the efficacy of darifenacin. Except for a very small age effect, none of the potential risk factors had significant effects on global tolerability.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the efficacy and tolerability of a muscarinic receptor antagonist, such as darifenacin is largely independent of potential OAB risk factors, such as gender, age, obesity, smoking and alcohol or caffeine intake.