Daily Dose: Artifically-sweetened Drinks and Urinary Incontinence in Women

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On February 7, 2023, we reported on a study published in Menopause that aimed to determine if higher artificially sweetened beverage consumption is associated with higher prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) symptoms in women.

The study

Investigators conducted a secondary analysis of data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, which enrolled 93 676 postmenopausal women, aged 50 to 79 years, at 40 clinical centers across the US from 1993 to 1998. The participants answered questions about consumption of artificially sweetened beverages and UI symptoms at their 3-year follow-up visit, including, “During the past 3 months, how often did you drink these beverages?” “Beverages” refer to diet drinks, such as diet soda or diet fruit drinks, with a serving size of 12 oz.

The analytic cohort comprised 80 388 women, of whom two-thirds were rare consumers of artificially sweetened beverages and 13% consumed greater than or equal to 1 serving per day. The unadjusted odds of reporting UI was 10% higher in women consuming 1 to 6 servings per week (odds ratio [OR], 1.10; 95% CI, 1.06-1.14) and 12% higher in women consuming greater than or equal to 1 serving per day (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.18) compared with those who never consume or consume less than 1 serving per week. There were no significant differences for stress or urgency UI symptoms between groups. Overall, 74.7% of the analytic cohort reported UI symptoms, with 27.2% reporting stress UI, 27.3% reporting urgent UI, 14.4% reporting mixed UI, and 5.8% reporting other/unknown type of incontinence.

Note from authors

"When compared to never to less than one serving per week, women consuming greater than or equal to one serving per day of artificially sweetened beverages had 10% greater odds of reporting mixed urinary incontinence after adjustments. Amount of artificially sweetened beverage consumption was not associated with stress or urgency urinary incontinence symptoms."

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