American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Volume 197, Issue 2 , Pages 167.e1-167.e5, August 2007

Incidence and remission of urinary incontinence in middle-aged women

  • Mary K. Townsend, BA

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprints: Mary Townsend, Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Ave, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02115.
    • ,
  • Kim N. Danforth, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Karen L. Lifford, MD

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Bernard Rosner, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Gary C. Curhan, MD, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Neil M. Resnick, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA.
    • ,
  • Francine Grodstein, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

Received 16 October 2006; received in revised form 3 January 2007; accepted 12 March 2007.

Objective

The objective of the study was to describe changes in urinary incontinence in middle-aged women.

Study Design

A prospective analysis of 64,650 women aged 36-55 years in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Participants reported urine leaking in 2001 and 2003. Two-year incidence and remission proportions were estimated.

Results

The 2-year incidence of incontinence was 13.7%. Incidence generally increased through age 50 years and then declined slightly in older women. Among women with incident incontinence at least weekly, the incidence of stress incontinence increased through age 50 years (2-year incidence 1.7%), and the incidence of urge incontinence was stable across age groups (2-year incidence 0.4%). Also, a minority (38%) mentioned leaking to their physician. Complete remission of symptoms occurred in 13.9% of women with incontinence at baseline.

Conclusion

We found that incontinence occurs frequently in middle-aged women. Yet few women mentioned incontinence to their physicians; thus, it may be important to initiate conversations about urinary symptoms even among younger patients.

Key words: epidemiology, incidence, urinary incontinence

 

 This work was supported in part by Grants DK62438 and CA50385 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). M.K.T. is supported by NIH Grant R25 GM55353.

 Cite this article as: Townsend MK, Danforth KN, Lifford KL, et al. Incidence and remission of urinary incontinence in middle-aged women. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2007;197:167.e1-167.e5.

PII: S0002-9378(07)00408-5

doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2007.03.041

American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Volume 197, Issue 2 , Pages 167.e1-167.e5, August 2007

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