Urinary urgency acts as a source of divided attention leading to changes in gait in older adults with overactive bladder

AIMS: There is a well-recognised but unexplained association between lower urinary tract symptoms including urgency and urgency incontinence and falls in older people. It has been hypothesised that urinary urgency acts as a source of divided attention, leading to gait changes which increase falls risk. This study aimed to assess whether urinary urgency acts as a source of divided attention in older adults with overactive bladder (OAB). METHODS: 27 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and over with a clinical diagnosis of OAB underwent 3-Dimensional Instrumented Gait Analysis under three conditions; bladder empty, when experiencing urgency, and when being distracted by the n-back test. Temporal-spatial gait and kinematic gait data were compared between each condition using repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: Gait velocity decreased from 1.1ms(-1) in the bladder empty condition to 1.0ms(-1) with urgency and 0.9ms(-1) with distraction (p = 0.008 and p<0.001 respectively). Stride length also decreased, from 1.2m to 1.1m with urgency and 1.0m with distraction (p<0.001 for both). The presence of detrusor overactivity did not influence these results (p = 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: In older adults with OAB, urinary urgency induced similar changes in gait to those caused by a distracting task. These gait changes are associated with increased fall risk. This may be part of the explanation for the association between falls and lower urinary tract symptoms in older people. Future research should examine the effect of pharmacological treatment of OAB on gait and on the effect of dual-task training on gait when experiencing urgency.