The incidence of urinary incontinence across Asian, black, and white women in the United States

Abstract

Objective-We calculated incidence rates of urinary incontinence by incontinence frequency and type over 4 years in Asian, black, and white women in the United States.Study Design-Prospective analyses included 76,724 participants aged 37-79 years in the Nurses' Health Study cohorts with no incontinence at baseline.Results-The 4-year incidence of incontinence at least monthly was higher in white women (7.3/100 person-years) compared with Asian (5.7/100 person-years, p=0.003) and black women (4.8/100 person-years, p<0.001). The incidence of at least weekly stress incontinence was significantly lower in black compared with white women (0.1 versus 0.8 per 100 person-years, p<0.001). The difference between black and white women in the incidence of any incontinence and stress incontinence remained significant after adjusting for known risk factors (p<0.001 for both).Conclusions-Urinary incontinence incidence differs by race. Studies to confirm these results and better understand underlying mechanisms are needed.

A Population-based Survey of the Prevalence, Potential Risk Factors, and Symptom-specific Bother of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Adult Chinese Women

“…There seem to be ethnic differences. Asian women were less prone to UI or LUTS, which is in line with a global prevalence analysis by Milsom et al [23] and an incidence study by Townsend et al [24]. Some of the differences observed can probably be E U R O P E A N U R O L O G Y X X X ( 2 0 1 4 ) X X X -X X X attributed to methodological differences among studies.…”

Epidemiology of Stress Urinary Incontinence in Women

“…According to data from NHANES, 12.3% of black women report SUI as compared to 26.5% of white or 25.8% of Mexican-American women (OR for SUI in white vs black women: 2.79) [9]. Similar results recently have been reported for women in the BACH survey [10], in the NHS [25], within the U.S. military health system [26], and those living in the state of Michigan [27]. Physiologic differences to explain racial variation in prevalence have not been well studied [1, 4••].…”

Comparison of pelvic floor muscle strength between women undergoing vaginal delivery, cesarean section, and nulliparae using a perineometer and digital palpation

“…Considering that pelvic floor dysfunctions indicate laxity of the component tissues, some authors have identified differences in the prevalence of these dysfunctions according to race/ethnicity [29,30]. In contrast, other investigators failed to observe this finding [24].…”