Prevalence of urinary incontinence and its relationship with health status

A postal survey of two random samples of adult populations within two healt h authorities in the UK was undertaken during 1994. One health authority ha d an established continence advisory service (HA1) and the other one did no t have a continence advisory service (HA2). A total of 12 529 patients (HA1, 6319; HA2, 6210) were mailed a structured questionnaire and 53% (n=6139) returned completed questionnaires. A point prevalence of current urinary incontinence of 9% (n=519, 95% CI, or confidence interval, from 7.9% to 9.3%) was found. A larger number of peop le within the populations had experienced urinary incontinence at some time during their adult years (23%, n=1427, 95% CI from 22.2% to 24.3%). People who were incontinent had a significantly lower health status than pe ople who were continent (mean scores across all eight domains of the Short Form 36, SF36, P < 0.0001), indicative of greater health and social care ne eds. The prevalence of urinary incontinence in the adult populations of two comm unities indicates that it is a sizeable public health and primary healthcar e issue.