title: Urinary incontinence in women: prevalence rates, risk factors and impact on quality of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence, risk factors of urinary incontinence (UI) and to assess its impact on the quality of women's life.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was performed 1050 female participants aged between 20-80 years. A questionnaire form, including the socio-demographic characteristics and risk factors and the "International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form" were used for the data collection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of women was 48.80±11.53 years. The prevalence of UI was 44.6%. The distribution of the types of UI was 31% stress incontinence, 47.4% urge, and 33.1% mixed type. Although 95.5% of the women reported a negative impact on the quality of life, admission to a health center was only 63.9%, and 64.7% of the women had not received any medical help. The statistical analysis revealed that menopause, constipation, hypertension, diabetes, family history and parity are associated with UI as risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest that in the early diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence (UI), mental, educational and psychosocial support should be given to patients together with medical therapy.
authors.affiliation: Nazli Sensoy, Department of Family Medicine, Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nazli
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sensoy
authors.affiliation: Nurhan Dogan, Department of Biostatistics, Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nurhan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dogan
authors.affiliation: Burcu Ozek, 6th Grade Medical Student, Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
authors.forename: Burcu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ozek
authors.affiliation: Leyla Karaaslan, 6th Grade Medical Student, Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Karaaslan
keywords: Awareness; Female; Prevalence; Risk factors; Urinary incontinence