Prevalence and incidence of urinary incontinence in the elderly: a longitudinal study in South Australia.
- Author:
Chaojie LIU
1
;
Gary R ANDREWS
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Humans; Incidence; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Prevalence; South Australia; epidemiology; Urinary Incontinence; epidemiology; etiology
- From: Chinese Medical Journal 2002;115(1):119-122
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVETo identify the prevalence, incidence and trend of urinary incontinence in the elderly over a two-year period.
METHODSWe randomly selected 4187 elderly people using the State Electoral Data Base in South Australia. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in 1992 with a response rate of 53.4%. The following two surveys were conducted 12 and 24 months later. A total of 2087 elderly people completed all three surveys.
RESULTSUrge incontinence had a higher prevalence rate, with 36.6% to 41.6% of the elderly having at least an occasional problem (with 7.5% to 9.6% having problems often), compared to 23.4% to 28.8% having at least an occasional problem with stress incontinence (with 3.3% to 5.0% having problems often). Combined incontinence and urge incontinence were more common than stress incontinence alone. The incidence rates of urge incontinence and stress incontinence were 19.8% (with 3.1% often) and 14.5% (with 1.9% often), respectively. The trends toward incontinence during the two-year period indicated increasing trends in the elderly.
CONCLUSIONUrinary incontinence is an important health problem in the elderly and our data show that it has an increasing trend for future.