Prevalence and impact of urinary symptoms among community-dwelling stroke survivors

Background and Purpose-To establish prevalence of urinary symptoms among co mmunity-dwelling stroke survivors and how these symptoms affected lives of these survivors compared with a nonstroke population. Methods-The present study was a community-based postal survey in Leicesters hire community, UK (that excluded institutional settings), that was designe d to track stroke, urinary, and bowel symptoms and the effect of such sympt oms on relationships, social life, daily activities, and overall quality of life. Subjects included 14 600 people who were living in the community and less than or equal to 40 years of age, randomly selected from the Leiceste rshire Health Authority Register. Results-A 70% response rate was achieved with the return of 10 226 question naires. Prevalence of reported stroke was 4% (n=423), Prevalence of urinary symptoms was 34% (n=3197). Overall, stroke survivors had a higher prevalen ce of symptoms than the nonstroke population (64% to 32%, respectively). Th ese symptoms were reported to have more of an effect on the lives of the st roke survivors compared with the nonstroke population even when adjusted fo r age and sex differences. This reported impact was not related to the stro ke per se but to the severity of the urinary symptoms. Conclusions-These data show a high prevalence of urinary symptoms among com munity-dwelling stroke survivors. These symptoms were reported to have cons iderable impact on the Lives of stroke survivors, which needs to be taken i nto account in future research and clinical practice.