Dose and aging effect on patients reported treatment benefit switching from the first overactive bladder therapy with tolterodine ER to fesoterodine: post-hoc analysis from an observational and retrospective study

A post-hoc analysis of data from a retrospective, cross-sectional and observational study was performed in a cohort of 748 OAB adults patients (OAB-V8 score ≥8), who switched to fesoterodine from their first tolterodine-ER-based therapy within the 3–4？months before study visit. Effect of fesoterodine doses (4？mg vs. 8？mg) and patient age (<65？yr vs. ≥65？yr) were assessed. Patient reported treatment benefit [Treatment Benefit Scale (TBS)] and physician assessment of improvement with change [Clinical Global Impression of Improvement subscale (CGI-I)] were recorded. Treatment satisfaction, degree of worry, bother and interference with daily living activities due to urinary symptoms were also assessed.Improvements were not affected by age. Fesoterodine 8？mg vs. 4？mg provides significant improvements in terms of treatment benefit [TBS 97.1% vs. 88.4%, p？<？0.001; CGI-I 95.8% vs. 90.8% p？<？0.05)], degree of worry, bother and interference with daily-living activities related to OAB symptoms (p <0.05).A change from tolterodine ER therapy to fesoterodine with dose escalation to 8？mg in symptomatic OAB patients, seems to be associated with greater improvement in terms of both patient-reported-treatment benefit and clinical global impression of change. Improvement was not affected by age.Overactive bladder (OAB) is a lower urinary tract disorder characterized by urgency with or without urge incontinence, often with increased daytime frequency and nocturia [1-4]. The prevalence of OAB increased with age [5-8]. In Spain, the EPICC study showed that the prevalence of OAB, previously estimated in adults ≥40？years of age at 21.5% [9], was 5.9% for women aged 25–64, 4.6% for men aged 50–65 and 38.5% for institutionalized people over 65 [10]. The symptoms associated with OAB can significantly affect the psychological, social, occupational, domestic, and sexual aspects of those who suffer from it [11]. As a result, OAB has a negative impact on the patient’s quality of life [12,13]. Des