Significant Association ID”d Between Hepatitis C, Overactive Bladder

THURSDAY, June 25, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There is a significant association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and overactive bladder (OAB), according to a study published online May 29 in BMC Urology.

Yiming Ding, from Southeast University in Nanjing, China, and colleagues analyzed data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2013 and 2018 to examine the association between HCV and OAB in adults. To control for confounding factors, propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability weighting (IPTW), and overlap weighting (OW) were employed.

Data were included for 14,012 patients aged 20 years and older. The researchers found that there was an association between HCV and OAB in logistic regression analysis (odds ratio, 2.06). The relationship remained consistent across all subgroups. The association between the two remained significant after PSM, IPTW, and OW analyses; strong robustness was demonstrated to unmeasured confounders in E-value analysis.

“The study clearly establishes the predictive value of HCV infection for OAB and identifies high-risk populations, providing concrete evidence for clinical screening,” the authors write. “At present, the underlying mechanisms linking HCV and OAB remain unclear, potentially involving multiple pathways.”

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