Epidemiology and natural history of urinary incontinence

This paper examines or current state of knowledge of the epidemiology of ur inary incontinence. The population studied was community-dwelling noninstit utionalized persons. The review includes discussion of the prevalence, inci dence, natural history and presence or racial and ethnic differences in the epidemiology of urinary incontinence. We also review con-elates and potent ial risk factors that have been revealed in epidemiological studies. Differ ences between epidemiological and clinical approaches to a health problem? help-seeking behavior and methodological issues for research are also discu ssed. We have reviewed a large number of completed studies in the field of urinary incontinence, and have emphasized high-quality and population-based studies. We also wished to present studies from a variety of countries. Be cause of the abundance of studies, only a small fraction can be presented h ere. Other studies may have equal standards and useful information, but lac k of space precludes their inclusion.