OBJECTIVES: To describe the observed changes in quality of life and bother associated with LUTS at one year from baseline assessment in a sample of Italian women.METHODS: The FLOW study is a two-year observational investigation aimed at evaluating prevalence, clinical progression and QoL impact of female LUTS. Women aged = 18 years, not pregnant, with LUTS for = 3 months and negative dipstick were consecutively enrolled in 39 Italian Urology Centres. Symptoms and QoL were assessed by: ICIQ-LF, W-IPSS and SF-36. Differences between the questionnaires' scores at baseline and follow-up visits were calculated to assess deterioration or improvement in QoL. Here we refer to the first 12-month observational period.RESULTS: Out of 505 total subjects enrolled at (12 months) follow-up, 467 patients fully completed ICIQ-LF. The average variation observed in patients' reported overall 'impact of symptoms' was -1.92 (SD 3.36; range -7; 10), suggesting a reported improvement in QoL from baseline. The frequency of women who complained of urine leakage shows a significant decrease from baseline to follow up (68% Vs 55.6%). Consistently, the number of patients complaining of limited activities due to urinary leakage decreased from 56.5% to 42%. The W-IPSS was compiled by 83% of all subjects. For all symptoms considered, greater improvement in QoL was observed were symptoms showed higher remission rates and lower persistency and incidence rates. An overall improvement was confirmed also by SF-36 results: 49.2% of patients at follow-up reported a good health status (to various degrees) versus 10.7% at baseline. CONCLUSION: According to ICIQ-LF and W-IPSS an overall condition improvement was registered at 12 months from baseline with respect to all LUT symptoms (storage, voiding and post-micturition categories). A correlation between increased QoL and observed symptoms remission rates was detected by all questionnaires.