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The following is a summary of “Atherogenic Index of Plasma mediates the association between Life’s Crucial 9 with overactive bladder: a secondary data analysis from NHANES,” published in the February 2025 issue of Frontiers in Endocrinology by Gong et al. 

The link between cardiovascular health, lipid profiles, and overactive bladder (OAB), as assessed by Life’s Crucial 9 (LC9) and the Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP), remains unclear. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to study the association between LC9 and OAB and assess the influence of the AIP on this relationship. 

They performed an analysis of 25,628 U.S. participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database (2005–2018). Multivariate logistic regression estimated the relation between LC9 and OAB. Subgroup analysis and restricted cubic splines (RCS) further validated this relationship, and the mediation analysis examined the potential role of AIP. 

The results showed that 25,628 participants were analyzed, with 5,150 reporting OAB events. After adjusting for age, sex, race, marital status, education level, poverty-to-income ratio (PIR), smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, a 10-unit increase in LC9 was linked to a 28% reduction in OAB incidence (odds ratio (OR) = 0.72, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.69–0.76). A 1-unit increase in AIP was associated with a 7% rise in OAB incidence (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01–1.14). Categorizing LC9 and AIP into tertiles confirmed (P for trend < 0.05) and RCS analysis indicated a linear negative correlation between LC9 and OAB incidence. Mediation analysis showed that AIP mediated 6.49% of this relationship (P = 0.014). 

Investigators concluded that LC9 score was negatively correlated with OAB, a relationship partially mediated by the AIP, suggesting a link between cardiovascular health and bladder function. 

Source: frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2025.1505712/full