Undetected prevalence of urinary incontinence among middle-aged women and its association with quality of life (original) (raw)

The study was conducted to determine the undiagnosed prevalence of urinary incontinence and its association with the quality of life in middle-aged and older women. Material and methods: The sample of the study consisted of women aged 40 years or above who were admitted to a tertiary care center between March and July 2019. The data were collected by faceto-face interview method. "International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF)" and "Incontinence Quality of Life Questionnaire (I-QOL)" were used to collect data on urinary incontinence and quality of life. Results: The screened sample included 140 women (mean age: 60.6±11.3 years). Urinary incontinence was detected in 90 subjects (64.3%). Urinary incontinence complaints were present for an average of four years. Self-rated effect on daily life was moderate (ICIQ-SF: 5.0±2.5), and more than half of them (64.4%) did not consider urinary incontinence as a health issue, More than half (62.9%) did not admit for professional care for many reasons. The average score was 85.0±14.7 from the "Psychosocial influence" sub-dimension, 71.0±16.9 from the "Social isolation" subdimension, 65.1±16.6 from the "Limitation of behaviors" sub-dimension, and 74.6±14.5 from the whole scale. There was no significant relationship between I-QOL total score and educational status, marital status, income level, chronic diseases, mode of delivery, and menopause. Discussion and conclusion: This study found that more than half of women admitted to a hospital for other reasons have urinary incontinence complaints. Although the duration of symptoms was long and quality of life was somehow influenced, admission to a health facility was low.