[Study on the prevalence of urinary incontinence and its related factors among elderly in rural areas, Jixian county, Tianjin].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) and its related factors so as to develop a three-tier program for prevention of the disease.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out in two townships of Jixian county, Tianjin, during July to November 2007. A total of 743 people aged 60 years and over were selected under cluster sampling, and all information were collected with a standardized structured questionnaire by face-to-face interview. All the data were analyzed with multivariate logistic regression method to explore the related factors for UI in the elderly.


RESULTS
The overall prevalence of UI was 33.38 percent among people aged 60 years and over in two townships. Risk factors for UI in men would include older age (OR = 1.39), occupation (OR = 5.00), awareness of UI (OR = 1.91), having in chronic respiratory diseases (OR = 2.23), prostate (OR = 11.47), neurological (OR = 11.76), or motor systems (OR = 2.48), while protective factors would include high educational level (taking primary school or below as control group), OR for the junior middle school group appeared to be 0.35, for senior middle school group it was 0.77, and of undergraduate group it was 0.53. Risk factors for UI in women would include older age (OR = 1.31), constipation (OR = 1.46), awareness of UI (OR = 1.94), increased body mass index (when normal weight group served as control group, OR in the overweight group was 1.03 and in the obesity group OR was 1.54), suffering from chronic respiratory diseases (OR = 4.84), diabetes mellitus (OR = 2.36), or motor system diseases (OR = 1.37), more gravidity (OR = 1.03), more parity (OR = 1.02), suffering from perinea laceration (OR = 1.72) and wound infection during delivery (OR = 1.65), while protective factors would include physical exercises (OR = 0.64).


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of UI was higher among the elderly people in rural areas of Jixian county, Tianjin. UI in the elderly might have been influenced by various factors which suggesting the intervention strategy should be targeted at those related factors as well as focusing on primary prevention.
Yu
Pu-Lin
PL
School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China. pulin_yu@163.com
Shi
Jing
J
Liu
Xue-Rong
XR
Xia
Cong-Wang
CW
Liu
Dong-Fu
DF
Wu
Zheng-Lai
ZL
Sun
Zhen-Qiu
ZQ
D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology*