title: The association between urinary and fecal incontinence and social isolation in older women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the association between social isolation and urinary incontinence and fecal incontinence in older women.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a secondary database analysis of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project for women aged 57 to 85 years old. Our primary outcome was self-report of often feeling isolated. We explored self-report of daily urinary incontinence and weekly fecal incontinence. Two logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between often feeling isolated and (1) daily urinary incontinence and (2) weekly fecal incontinence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1412 women were included in our analysis. Daily urinary incontinence was reported by 12.5% (177/1412) of community-dwelling older women. More women with daily urinary incontinence reported often feeling isolated (6.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-11.9 vs 2.6%; 95% CI, 1.7-3.5; P = .04) compared with women without daily urinary incontinence. Women with daily urinary incontinence had 3.0 (95% CI, 1.1-7.6) increased odds of often feeling isolated after adjusting for depressive symptoms, age, race, education, and overall health. Weekly fecal incontinence was reported by 2.9% (41/1412) of women. Weekly fecal incontinence and often feeling isolated were associated on univariable analysis (crude odds ratio, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.4-15.1). However, after adjusting for depressive symptoms, age, race, education, and overall health the association between weekly fecal incontinence and often feeling isolated was not significant (adjusted odds ratio, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.1-5.3; P = .65).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After adjusting for confounders, daily urinary incontinence was significantly associated with often feeling isolated. Weekly fecal incontinence was not found to be associated with often feeling isolated on multivariable logistic regression.
authors.affiliation: Section of Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Sallis O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.forename: Madeline A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.forename: Alexandra M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: McPencow
authors.forename: Deanna K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ciarleglio
authors.forename: Elisabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Erekson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008132:Loneliness; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057566:Self Report; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*