The survey contains questions on demographics, comorbid conditions, and the Veteran’s RAND 12-item health status survey. The study is unique but is probably not generalizable as it includes Medigap participants who are generally in better overall health and have a higher socioeconomic status compared to Medicare participants.
The survey was sent in 2008 to a random sample of 15,000 from 10 states. Subjects were identified as having UI if they answered affirmatively to the question about leaking urine during the last six months. Of the 5,530 eligible respondents, 37.5% reported having UI, similar to other published reports on UI prevalence. The strongest predictors of UI were female gender, advancing age, and obesity. The authors noted that UI had a stronger influence on QOL than did diabetes, cancer, and arthritis, particularly from a mental health standpoint. Interestingly, higher education was associated with an increased likelihood of UI which has not been previously reported in the literature.
The findings in this study suggest that UI had one of the largest adverse impacts on mental health status with large decreases in social functioning, vitality, and role physical domain scores. UI was associated with the fourth largest QOL score decrease in these health domains, consistently greater than several serious chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes to name a few, This suggests that physical and vitality domains were significantly impacted as well.
The article adds to the understanding that UI remains prevalent in at least 1 out of 3 older adults, has a greater impact on QoL than many other chronic medical conditions, and is an aging issue for women.
Hawkins K, Pernarelli J, Ozminkowski RJ, Bai M, Gaston SJ, Hommer C, Migliori RJ, Yeh
Qual Life Res. 2011 Jun;20(5):723-32
10.1007/s11136-010-9808-0
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21140294
UroToday.com Urinary Incontinence (UI) Section
