Clinical research studyPrevalence and Severity of Undiagnosed Urinary Incontinence in Women
Section snippets
Study Population
The managed care population utilized for this study, Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW), is a mostly Caucasian population of 436,000 enrollees representing the metropolitan Portland, Oregon area. KPNW has an 85% retention rate yearly and is unique in that the EpicCare clinical information system, a comprehensive electronic medical record that allows for population-based research of physician-diagnosed disorders, was implemented beginning in 1998. Women aged 25 to 80 years who were members of
Results
Among the 875 participants in this study, 461 (52.6%) reported having urinary incontinence in the past 12 months and 340 (38.9%) reported having urinary incontinence in the past 7 days. The age-adjusted prevalence of undiagnosed urinary incontinence was 51% in the past 12 months and 38% in the past 7 days. The age-adjusted rates of stress urinary incontinence, urge urinary incontinence, and mixed urinary incontinence were 18.7%, 6.8%, and 12.0%, respectively. While the rates of urge urinary
Discussion
In this managed-care population of women aged 25-80 years, the prevalence of undiagnosed urinary incontinence was 53% in the preceding year and 39% in the preceding week. Of these women, >65% reported moderate to severe incontinence severity. While barriers in care have been suggested to result in a proportion of cases of urinary incontinence going undiagnosed in women, the magnitude of this problem is not well characterized. To date, the majority of research estimates the prevalence of urinary
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Funding: NIDDK UO1 DK060177.
Conflict of Interest: Neither the primary author nor any of the corresponding authors have any conflicts of interest with the submission of this article.
Authorship: All 7 authors of this manuscript have made a substantial contribution to writing the manuscript and had access to the data.