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. 2025 Jul;43(3):647-660.
doi: 10.5534/wjmh.230361. Epub 2024 Nov 20.

The Influence of Dietary Habits on Male Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: Differential Influence of Water Intake on Voiding Symptoms and Storage Symptoms

Woo Suk Choi #  1 , Nam Ju Heo #  2 , Hwancheol Son  3   4
Affiliations

The Influence of Dietary Habits on Male Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: Differential Influence of Water Intake on Voiding Symptoms and Storage Symptoms

Woo Suk Choi et al. World J Mens Health. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the dietary factors affecting male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).

Materials and methods: This retrospective study analyzed men who underwent health check-ups. The men who completed the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and a dietary questionnaire with 19 items were included in the study. Men with a history of medication for LUTS were excluded from the study. The influences of each dietary habit on total IPSS, voiding symptoms, storage symptoms and quality of life were evaluated separately. Dietary risk group was defined by the number of significant dietary risk factors.

Results: The mean age of 28,463 men was 52.2±8.7 years. After adjusting for age and other conditions, 13 dietary habits (for examples; overeating, preference for salty food, frequently eating sweets, and infrequently eating vegetables, etc.) were the significant risk factors related to worse total IPSS scores. For voiding symptoms, storage symptoms, and quality of life scores, 14, 12, and 12 dietary habits were identified as independent risk factors, respectively. Drinking four or more cups of water per day was related to worse storage symptoms (odds ratio [OR]=1.12, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]=1.09-1.22), but better voiding symptoms (OR=0.90, 95% CI=0.86-0.95). The newly developed dietary risk group showed that total and subtotal IPSS scores increased by the number of bad dietary habits in all age groups, respectively.

Conclusions: This study showed that dietary habits had a significant impact on LUTS. The amount of water consumed had a differential influence on each subdomain symptom.

Keywords: Diet; Food; Lower urinary tract symptoms; Salts; Water.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Flowchart of study population enrollment. IPSS: International Prostate Symptom Score, LUTS: lower urinary tract symptoms, PSA: prostate-specific antigen, sCr: serum creatinine.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Scores for each IPSS domain by risk group and age group. (A) Total IPSS score, (B) voiding symptom score sum, (C) storage symptom score sum, and (D) Qol score. Group 1 (0 or 1 risk factors), Group 2 (2 or 3 risk factors), Group 3 (4 or 5 risk factors), Group 4 (6 or more risk factors). Detailed value, number and p-value were presented in Supplement Table 3. IPSS: International Prostate Symptom Score, Qol: quality of life.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Scores for each IPSS domain by drinking water. IPSS: International Prostate Symptom Score. *p<0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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