NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – More than half of women in a recent survey had undiagnosed urinary incontinence, with two thirds reporting moderate to severe symptoms.

Because urinary incontinence “is largely treatable in women,” the researchers maintain that women and clinicians should be encouraged to identify symptoms and discuss them.

To determine the extent of incontinence, Dr. J. Quentin Clemens, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues mailed questionnaires to 2118 women aged 25 to 80 years of age enrolled in Kaiser Permanente Northwest. None had been diagnosed with urinary incontinence or any other genitourinary condition.

Questions covered incontinence type, frequency and severity of urinary leakage, and quality of life.

In the November issue of the American Journal of Medicine, the authors report that 875 women (41%) returned the questionnaires. Based on their answers, 52.6% had urinary incontinence in the past 12 months, and 38.9% had it in the past 7 days.

Age-adjusted rates of stress, urge, and mixed urinary incontinence were 18.7%, 6.8%, and 12.0%, respectively. Rates of urge and mixed incontinence, but not stress incontinence, rose significantly with age.

Most women (53.6%) reported moderate symptoms. Although the median weekly number of episodes was 1, the range was 1 to 35. Most women (68%) used sanitary napkins or pads at least occasionally, and 46% occasionally had wet clothing from urinary leakage.

Increasing severity of symptoms was associated with lower quality of life. “None of the women reporting very severe urge or mixed urinary incontinence also reported being satisfied with her quality of life,” the researchers said.

In 234 women, incontinence was moderate or severe. During the prior year, however, only 11 (4.7%) had incontinence symptoms documented in their medical records, even though their median number of office visits was 4.

“These results suggest…that the incontinence tends to be frequent, lasting and bothersome,” but that it is “apparently unrecognized by caretakers,” the authors conclude. “It appears that physician-patient communication about urinary incontinence is poor.”

Reference:
Am J Med 2009;122:1037-1042.