Study Reveals Bladder Problems Cost US $ 44 Billion Per Year

A new study shows that people who have to go to the bathroom several times a night cost the US economy $ 45 billion a year, because sleep disturbances make them more tired and sick than their peers.

The urge to pee overnight is the leading cause of sleep loss and is especially common in older adults.

In the United States, some 40 million adults suffer from nocturia, including 27.5 million people, according to the new study, which was funded by a drug company that makes a drug to treat the disease.

And it connects these sleepless nights to a week of missed work each year and an economic loss of tens of billions of dollars a year.

The many mid-night shopping trips make workers exhausted, less productive and sicker at work, costing the global economy billions of dollars every year

As if lack of sleep was not enough, people with nocturia wake up in the middle of the night desperate to go to the bathroom.

The causes of the emergency range from simple behaviors such as drinking too much water, caffeine or alcohol at bedtime, to urinary tract infections or problems such as an enlarged stomach. Prostate in humans or medications under HRT in menopausal women.

Aging also increases the risk of nocturia because the body's production of the hormone that concentrates the urine begins to slow down.

In addition to the trouble of having to pee while trying to sleep, anything that disturbs sleep can have serious consequences for your next day and your general health.

Having less than seven hours of uninterrupted sleep is associated with a higher risk of premature death, heart disease and depression, to name just a few of the conditions that it can aggravate.

And sleep is the key to the immune system. Thus, those who have to get up twice or more at night are more likely to recover from viral or bacterial infections.

To this end, researchers at the Rand Corporation found in their global study that people with nocturia were either out of work or too sick to fully exercise their work for an average of seven more days per year than people who slept all the time. night.

These same people are 1.3% less "engaged" at work, which means they participate less actively in their roles when they are at work.

This is about the same decrease as in people with chronic kidney failure or high blood pressure, the researchers reported.

In total, this loss of productivity is rapidly accumulating in the United States, where it stands at $ 44.4 billion.

Nocturia costs less to other countries, but remains far from a symbolic amount. The UK loses $ 5.9 billion, Spain and Australia each lose $ 3 billion, Germany lost $ 8.4 billion and Japan loses 13.7 billions of dollars.

Just like chronic diseases like asthma or heart disease, the quality of life of people with nocturia is simply inferior.

The new study found that those who have to get up at night are two percent less satisfied with their lives.

For many, nocturia remains a stigmatized or embarrassing subject, despite the fact that between 13 and 17% of the population suffers from it.

But researchers urge doctors to talk to their patients about the possibility of not losing more sleep than they should, not to lose more sleep, not to lose their productivity, and not to lose their country. Capital city.

"Given the substantial economic implications of untreated nocturia, this should be a call for" awakening "of various stakeholders, including patients, health care providers and employers, on the importance of 39 identify and treat nocturia, "said the study's lead author and Rand economist Marco Hafner said.

"Physicians and health practitioners often consider that nocturia is a potential health problem associated with sleep loss and patients may delay reporting of the condition until it becomes unbearable and unhelpful. greatly affects their well-being.