Risk Factors for Female Urinary Incontinence and Pad-Test: Our Experience

Abstract

If urinary incontinence in females is present upon effort or exertion, or on sneezing or coughing it is called stress urinary incontinence. If it is accompanied or immediately preceded by urgency it is called urge urinary incontinence. Many studies have shown that risk factors (age, parity, obstetric traumas, body mass index and others) are associated with the prevalence and severity of female urinary incontinence (any type), while other studies do not support this correlation. We reviewed the records at our institution to investigate the relationship between risk factors and severity of stress urinary incontinence.

Patients and methods

In the year 2002, we examined 118 consecutive patients - mean age 59 years SD ± 10.6 years (range 29 – 80 years) with urodynamic stress incontinence, at the Urodynamic Unit of our institution. The severity of stress incontinence was evaluated by Pad-test performed after cystometry (350 ml or maximum cystometric filling). Only results > 3 g were considered positive - mean 37.8 g SD ± 55.7 g (range 3 –281 g, Median ± MAD 17.0 g ± 10.0 g).

Results

We did not find any correlation between severity of incontinence and parity, obstetric traumas, or body mass index. However, we did find a statistically significant correlation between age and severity of urinary incontinence (Spearman Rank Correlation = 0.401, P=0.0014), whereas no association was found among women over 70 years of age.

Conclusions

Our study supports the association between age and severity of urodynamic stress incontinence, while we cannot confirm the correlation between severity of urinary incontinence and other risk factors.