Prevalance of the urinary incontinence in women older than 40 years and influence of their QoL

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the frequency of urinary incontinence that appears in women in their declining years and to what degree their qualities of life are affected by this problem. Material and Methods: Study was conducted with women over 40 years in 5 clinics that serve affiliated to Kirklareli provincial centre between the October 2007 and January 2008. A 27-question- questionaire developed by the researcher in order to define socio-demographic characteristics, risk factors that cause incontinence was applied. Furthermore, Incontinence Quality of Life questionnaire (IQOL) was also applied to women who had a complaint of urinary incontinence for defining the level of quality of life of the women. Results: Urinary continence was found 48.3% of the women population over 40 years that researched. We showed that the quality of life of the women with urinary incontinence did not affected that much. It was found out that the rise in age, birth number, and body mass index in women with incontinence resulted in significant declining in quality of life of these women. We also shown that quality of life of women with incontinence did not affected by the lenght of the urinary incontinence symptom process. Conclusion: Although, we estimated that the urinary incontinence affect women's life quality in a low degree, it is an important health problem that influence nearly fifty percent of the women over 40 years old. Copyright © 2010 by Türkiye Klinikleri.