SIMILAR LEVELS OF UROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS HAVE SIMILAR IMPACT ON SCOTTISHAND AMERICAN MEN ALTHOUGH SCOTS REPORT LESS SYMPTOMS

Urinary symptoms and the extent to which they interfere with living ac tivities were compared in 2 community-based investigations that enroll ed men 40 to 79 years old who were randomly sampled from Olmsted Count y, Minnesota (2,119) and the Forth Valley of Scotland (1,385). Both in vestigations included symptom questions with wording that is nearly id entical to that of the American Urological Association (AUA) symptom i ndex. Following AUA scoring conventions we grouped scores into mild (A UA score 0 to 7), moderate (score 8 to 19) and severe (score 20+) cate gories. Minnesota men had symptoms that were more frequent, more bothe rsome and caused greater interference with living activities than did Scottish men of comparable age (p < 0.0002). However, within each symp tom score category, the extent to which symptoms interfered with livin g activities was essentially the same in both populations. Although th ere appear to be important differences in urinary symptom prevalence b etween Scotland and Minnesota, the AUA symptom index provides a consis tent measure of the extent to which urinary symptoms interfere with li ving activities in both populations. These findings support use of the AUA symptom index in the diagnostic evaluation of men with benign pro static hyperplasia.