Better Cardiovascular Health Inversely Linked to Overactive Bladder

THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Better cardiovascular health (CVH) is nonlinearly and inversely associated with overactive bladder (OAB), according to a study published in the August issue of the Annals of Medicine & Surgery.

Min Yan, from Changsha Medical University, and Xiaowei Jiang, M.D., from Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, both in China, conducted a cross-sectional study involving 6,042 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine the association between CVH, measured using the Life”s Essential 8 (LE8) score, and the presence and severity of OAB.

The researchers observed a pronounced inverse gradient between LE8 scores and OAB outcomes. Participants with high CVH had significantly lower odds of OAB compared with the low CVH group in fully adjusted models (odds ratio, 0.59). A 13 percent reduction in the odds of OAB was seen with each 10-point increase in LE8 score (odds ratio, 0.87). Threshold effects were seen at LE8 scores around 73 for OAB and urgency urinary incontinence in nonlinear analyses, beyond which the protective associations plateaued. Systematic inflammation mediated 4.8 percent of the association, and plasma osmolality mediated 12.8 percent, in causal mediation analyses. Of the LE8 components, the strongest contributors to urological outcomes were body mass index and sleep health.

“From a public health and clinical perspective, our results advocate for the integration of OAB prevention into the framework of primary cardiovascular disease prevention,” the authors write. “Specifically, for individuals with LE8 scores below 73, targeted interventions to improve CVH may confer dual benefits for both cardiometabolic and urological outcomes.”

Abstract/Full Text