Risk factors for urinary, fecal, or dual incontinence in the Nurses' Health Study.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and dual incontinence in a large cohort of older women and compare risk factors across the three conditions.


METHODS
These cross-sectional analyses used data from the Nurses' Health Study. The 2008 questionnaire, mailed to 96,480 surviving participants aged 62-87 years, included two separate items on the prevalence of urinary and fecal incontinence. A response of leakage at least once per month defined incontinence for both urine and stool. Dual incontinence was defined by responses at this frequency for both conditions. Using a polytomous logistic regression model, we assessed each risk factor for prevalence of urinary, fecal, and dual incontinence.


RESULTS
The survey was completed by 64,396 women. Thirty-eight percent had urinary incontinence alone, 4% had fecal incontinence alone, and 7% had dual incontinence. Age older than 80 years compared with age younger than 70 years was associated most strongly with dual incontinence (odds ratio [OR] 2.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.28-2.73) followed by depression (OR 2.28, 95% CI 2.13-2.43), neurologic disease (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.65-2.07), functional limitations (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.71-2.02), multiparity (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.41-1.94), and heavier fetal birth weight (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.10-1.41). Obesity was associated only with urinary incontinence (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.90-2.08) and type 2 diabetes mellitus was a stronger risk factor for fecal than urinary incontinence (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.28-1.59). Black race was associated with a reduced risk of all types of incontinence, especially dual incontinence (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.21-0.44).


CONCLUSIONS
In this large cohort, dual incontinence was primarily associated with advanced age, decompensating medical conditions, depression, and multiparity.


METHODS
II.
Division of Urogynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. CAtherine_matthews@med.unc.edu
Catherine A
CA
Matthews
William E
WE
Whitehead
Mary K
MK
Townsend
Francine
F
Grodstein
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology*