OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to document the age-specific prevalence of different types of urinary incontinence (UI) in women and to identify the risk factors associated with each type of UI.

DESIGN

A detailed self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 542 community-dwelling women, aged 24-80 years. The questionnaire included a validated instrument, the Questionnaire for Urinary Incontinence Diagnosis (QUID), for the assessment of stress, urge and mixed UI.

RESULTS

Five hundred and six of the 542 women provided data (93.4%). The overall prevalence of any UI was 41.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 37.2-45.8%]. Of the 210 women reporting UI, 16% [95% CI: 12.9-19.3%] reported stress only; 7.5% [95% CI: 5.2-9.8%] reported urge only and 18% [95% CI: 14.7-21.5%] reported a mixed pattern. Stress incontinence was most common amongst middle-aged women (25.3% of women aged 35-44 years), while urge incontinence was most common in women over the age of 75 years (24.2%). In logistic regression analyses, obesity (p<0.001) and being parous (p=0.019) were found to be significantly associated with stress incontinence, increasing age (p=0.002) with urge incontinence, and being overweight (p=0.035) or obese (p<0.001) and having had a hysterectomy (p=0.021) with mixed incontinence.

CONCLUSIONS

UI is a highly prevalent condition in women living in the community. Stress, urge and mixed incontinence have different age distributions and risk factors. These data are important in understanding the etiology, management and possible prevention of these conditions.