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.