The influence of age, parity, duration of previous oral contraceptive use, hysterectomy and menopause on the prevalence of urinary incontinence was evaluated by means of a postal questionnaire in women 46 to 86 years old who resided in the city of Göteborg, Sweden. A sample of 10,000 women from the 7 birth cohorts of 1900 to 1940 was obtained at random from the population register. The overall response rate was 74.6%. The prevalence of urinary incontinence increased (p < 0.001) in a linear fashion from 12.1% in the 1940 birth cohort to 24.6% in the 1900 birth cohort. The prevalence of urinary incontinence in nulliparous women was 7.7% in the 1930 birth cohort and 5.5% in the 1940 birth cohort. The corresponding figures for women who had experienced 1 delivery were 11.1% and 10.6%, compared to 14.0% and 16.4% among women who had had 3 or more deliveries. Urinary incontinence was more prevalent in women who had undergone hysterectomy (p < 0.05). The prevalence of urinary incontinence was unaffected by the duration of previous oral contraceptive use and there was no evidence to suggest that the prevalence of urinary incontinence increased at the time of the last menstrual period.

The quality of life assessed by the Nottingham Health Profile Questionnaire was compared in a group of women (n = 120) suffering from urinary incontinence (age 75.4 +/- 1.9, range 65-84 years) and an age-matched representative sample of the total population (n = 313). There were no significant differences between the two groups of women in occurrence of other illnesses or social characteristics. Women suffering from urinary incontinence obtained higher scores in the domains of emotional disturbances (p < 0.05) and social isolation (p < 0.001) than women from the control group. When subdividing the incontinent women by type of incontinence it was found that women suffering from urge and mixed incontinence reported emotional disturbances (p < 0.05) more than women from the control group. There was, however, no difference within the domain of emotional disturbances between stress-incontinent women and the control group. Women suffering from urge incontinence reported more disturbance of sleep (p < 0.05) than the control group. Women suffering from all types of urinary incontinence (p < 0.05) were socially more isolated than those from the age-matched group of women from the total population. Urinary incontinence in women has a detrimental effect on their daily lives and causes them to avoid social contacts.

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The prevalence of urinary incontinence and the use of incontinence aids was investigated in 85-year-old men and women resident in the city of Göteborg. The overall prevalence of urinary incontinence was 37.2%. Urinary incontinence was more prevalent (p less than 0.001) in women (43.2%) than men (24.0%), and in residents of a nursing home or hospital (83.9%) than in men and women living at home (29.4%). Urinary incontinence was more commonly encountered in men with neurological (p less than 0.001) and respiratory (p less than 0.05) illnesses, and in women suffering from cardiovascular (p less than 0.05), neurological (p less than 0.001) and urogenital (p less than 0.01) illnesses. Incontinence aids were used more often (p less than 0.001) by incontinent women (67.9%) then men (42.9%) living in the community, and were used by 86.4% of the incontinent men and 91.5% of the incontinent women living in an institution. Pads were the commonest form of incontinence aid used, irrespective of whether the men and women lived in the community or in an institution. Indwelling urinary catheters were used by only 2% of the 85-year-old men and women.