General Obstetrics and Gynecology: GynecologyRisk factors for urinary incontinence among middle-aged women
Section snippets
Study population
The Nurses' Health Study II began in 1989 when 116,671 female, registered nurses completed a mailed questionnaire. At enrollment, study participants were 25 to 42 years of age and lived in 14 states. Follow-up questionnaires are mailed biennially to update information on lifestyle and health; information on urinary incontinence was first requested in 2001. Follow-up remains high, at 90% to date (including a small proportion of known deaths). The study was approved by the Institutional Review
Results
The mean age of the study population was 44.8 years (Table I). Self-reported incontinence was highly prevalent: 43% of women reported leaking urine at least once a month. Black women and Asian women reported urinary incontinence less frequently than white women. Overall, of women who leaked urine at least once a month, 6% reported leaking enough to wet their outer clothing or the floor.
After adjustment for potential confounding factors, there was a highly significant trend of increasing
Comment
Among the >80,000 participants of the Nurses' Health Study II who were aged 37 to 54 years, 43% reported leaking urine at least once per month during the previous year. After multivariate adjustment, the prevalence of incontinence was higher in white women than in Asian or black women. In addition, the prevalence of incontinence increased with increasing age and BMI and was higher in parous women as compared with nulliparous women. We found that current smoking, diabetes mellitus, and
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Supported by grants DK62438, CA50385 from the National Institutes of Health.