A COMMUNITY-BASED STUDY OF PROSTATIC SYMPTOMS IN SINGAPORE

Purpose: We describe the prevalence of prostatic symptoms, bother and related quality of life, as well as health seeking behavior in men 40 years old or older in Singapore. Materials and Methods: A community ba sed cross-sectional study was conducted in men 40 years old or older i n Queenstown, Singapore. The International Prostate Symptom Score for benign prostatic hyperplasia was used to score symptom severity object ively. Results obtained were compared to those from United States, Sco ttish and Japanese populations. Results: The prevalence of moderate to severe symptomatology was 10% after age adjustment to match the 1990 Singapore population. The most prevalent symptoms were frequency (22.5 % of cases) and nocturia (21.5%) with consistently lower prevalence fo r bother (6.9% for frequency and nocturia). The prevalence of prostati c symptoms was approximately 3 or more times less than in the Scottish , United States and Japanese populations, while the prevalence of both er was approximately 10 times less. For symptomatic individuals there was poor correlation between symptom severity and bother scores. Bothe r scores correlated better with quality of life scores (r = 0.50) and were more closely associated with health seeking behavior (p = 0.03) t han symptom severity scores (r = 0.39, p = 0.07). Conclusions: The pre valence of prostatic symptoms, severity and bothersomeness were all re latively low in Singapore. Bother was not analogous to symptom severit y and should be considered independently in clinical decision making.