OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with the decision to seek care from a health professional for overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to identify US adults with symptoms of OAB. The sampling frame was selected from an existing consumer panel of 600,000 households. A 2-stage sampling scheme was used to obtain the target subsample (n=260,000) of individuals representative of US adults for age, sex, geographic area, household size, and urban versus rural location. The survey used the Overactive Bladder-Validated 8 (OAB-V8) instrument (total score ranging from 0-40) and additional questions probing health care-seeking behavior and treatment patterns. Only subjects scoring ³8 (ie, probable OAB) on the OAB-V8 were included in this analysis. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the demographic characteristics and symptoms associated with consulting a health care professional (ie, physician or nurse). RESULTS: Of the 162,906 subjects returning the survey (63% response rate), 43,252 (27%) had a score ³8. Of these, 19,761 (46%) reported that they had consulted a health professional regarding their bladder symptoms. Sex, "urine loss associated with a strong desire to urinate" (UL) and "frequent urination-daytime hours" (frequency) were most strongly associated with consulting. The full tree model, which consisted of 9 variables and 2835 nodes, produced a misclassification rate of 29%. A limited tree with only sex, UL, frequency, and 6 nodes produced a 39% misclassification rate. CONCLUSIONS: A number of characteristics influenced the decision to seek healthcare for bladder symptoms, with the 3 strongest characteristics being: 1). female gender; 2). a bother rating of "a little bit" or more from UL; and 3). a bother rating of "some" or more from frequency. Additional research is needed to identify other factors that contribute to healthcare-seeking behaviors.