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Impact of urinary incontinence in morbidly obese women versus women seeking urogynecologic care.

Gerten KA, Richter HE, Burgio KL, Wheeler TL, Goode PS, Redden DT

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Women's Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35233, USA. gerten@uab.edu

OBJECTIVES: To determine the impact of urinary incontinence (UI) on quality of life in morbidly obese women seeking bariatric surgery compared with women seeking urogynecologic care. METHODS: Women undergoing consultation for weight loss surgery completed questionnaires assessing the presence and severity of UI using the Medical, Epidemiological, and Social Aspects of Aging questionnaire and the impact of their UI using the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 and Urogenital Distress Inventory-6. The charts of the women with UI seen in a urogynecology center were reviewed. For these two samples, pairs were matched for UI severity using the total Medical, Epidemiological, and Social Aspects of Aging scores, and the women within pairs were compared concerning the impact of UI. RESULTS: A total of 93 pairs were matched. Morbidly obese women had lower scores on the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (mean 20.1 versus 42.0, P <0.0001) and the Urogenital Distress Inventory-6 (mean 30.4 versus 54.4, P <0.0001) compared with the urogynecology clinic patients. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study have shown that the impact of UI is lower in morbidly obese women than in women seeking urogynecologic care.

Published 25 December 2007 in Urology, 70(6): 1082-5.
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