A decade of bladder health research in women: What's next?

Rationale Evidence-based prevention strategies for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are lacking despite impacting 40-60% of women in the US. Following a decade of collaborative bladder health research, the principal investigators of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases-sponsored Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium share perspectives on future research priorities, based on their foundational work. Objectives The PLUS Research Consortium contributions include multiple major scientific advances and methodological techniques, including defining bladder health and function and bladder health terminology, development of novel research instruments to measure bladder health and function and knowledge, attitudes and beliefs around bladder health. Additionally a large, nationally representative cohort study of community-dwelling US women was conducted to describe the distribution of bladder health and function and provide epidemiologic insights on relevant risk and protective factors for bladder health and LUTS. Findings PLUS investigators identified a bladder health spectrum with a substantial number of women who, despite self-reporting high bladder health and function scores, still engage in adaptive or coping behaviors. These findings suggest a potential subgroup of women with “pre-clinical” LUTS who may be an important target for future primary LUTS prevention and bladder health promotion interventions. PLUS developed, validated, culturally adapted, and linguistically translated several tools for use and adaptation in future bladder health research. Conclusions A number of PLUS foundational tools and techniques are available for others to utilize when implementing new ideas and approaches to advance bladder health research and – ultimately – improve bladder health.