The Association Between Blood Lead Levels and Urgency Urinary Incontinence Among Adult Females: A Retrospective Study Based on NHANES 2005-2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether blood lead levels influence the risk of urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) in adult females. This study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2020, involving 9509 adult women aged 20 and older. The effect of blood lead levels on UUI was assessed using weighted multivariate logistic regression models. Additionally, the relationship between the two was illustrated using restricted cubic splines. Stratified analyses based on covariate categories were used to explore if factors influenced the relationship between blood lead levels and UUI. Adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that for each unit increase in blood lead levels, the risk of UUI increased by 10% (OR = 1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.17; P = 0.01). After categorizing blood lead levels into weighted tertiles, compared to the first tertile, the third tertile increased the risk of UUI by 1.34 times in Model 1 (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.13-1.59; P < 0.001). A restricted cubic spline analysis demonstrated a nonlinear relationship between blood lead levels and UUI (P for nonlinearity = 0.016). Stratified analysis revealed that baseline characteristics such as age, BMI, and PIR did not have an impact on the association between blood lead levels and UUI. This study demonstrated a close association between the risk of blood lead levels and UUI in adult women aged 20 and above. High blood lead levels were found to increase the risk of UUI.