Urological dysfunction in young women: an inheritance of childhood?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation of a history of lower urinary tract symptomatology during childhood with lower urinary tract dysfunction in young adult women. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was a multicentre, prospective, case-control study conducted between April 2013 and November 2015. A total of 300 women, aged 18-40 years, participated. The case group comprised women attending urogynaecology clinics for various lower urinary tract complaints and the control group was recruited from a healthy population. Exclusion criteria were designed to avoid common causes of lower urinary tract dysfunction and symptoms and included diabetes mellitus, neurological disease and pelvic inflammatory disease. All women completed a self-administered 77-item questionnaire, exploring childhood urological and bowel history, as well as current urological, bowel and sexual symptoms. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests to compare categorical variables. Multivariate logistic regression models were fit for the prediction of the adult outcomes, incorporating as explanatory variables all those that showed a significant P value in bivariate analysis. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Women with childhood urinary voiding and storage symptoms had a higher prevalence of these symptoms in adult life compared with women without such history. Women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) during childhood had a higher incidence of adult UTIs compared with women without this problem in childhood. CONCLUSIONS: Lower urinary tract dysfunction in childhood seems to 'persist' in young adult life but the implications of this finding in clinical practice need to be defined in future studies.