Nocturia, defined as waking at night to void during the main sleep period is among the most common and bothersome of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). While widely viewed as an inevitable consequence of chronological aging, there is a considerable inter-individual variability as middle-aged adults may experience severe nocturia and older age individuals might not. Therefore, nocturia may be related to accelerated biological aging rather than simply "getting older". Accordingly, we sought to compare associations of chronological and biological age with relation to nocturnal voiding frequency. In this pilot study, we prospectively studied 68 patients who were evaluated for cardiovascular disease - a condition in which chronological and biological age often differ considerably. Biological age was estimated using PhenoAge, a validated composite biomarker derived from 9 clinical and laboratory parameters reflecting systemic aging processes. Mean chronological age was significantly younger than mean biological age (70.5 ± 10.2 years vs. 78.8 ± 17.8 years, p < 0.001) and the two measures of age were significantly correlated (r=0.67, p<0.001). Median number of nighttime voids was 2. On univariate and mutlivariate analyses, ANV was significantly correlated with PhenoAge (r = 0.33, p=0.006), but not chronological age (r = 0.084, p = 0.49). In conclusion, this pilot study suggests that PhenoAge may better capture the physiological processes associated with nocturia than chronological age alone.
