Elsevier

Urology

Volume 70, Issue 6, December 2007, Pages 1082-1085
Urology

Adult urology
Impact of Urinary Incontinence in Morbidly Obese Women Versus Women Seeking Urogynecologic Care

Presented as a poster at the American Urogynecologic Society Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, California, October 2006
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2007.07.058Get rights and content

Abstract

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.

Section snippets

Material and Methods

Using a matched-pairs design, the participants were morbidly obese women with UI who underwent consultation for weight loss surgery from October 2003 to February 2005, and a comparison group composed of women seen in at an outpatient urogynecology center with a primary diagnosis of stress, urge, or mixed UI during the same period. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Institutional Review Board for Human Use approved the study.

The morbidly obese women, before their initial office visit,

Results

Matching produced 93 pairs of observations (186 total subjects). The characteristics of the two groups are presented in Table 1. Subjects ranged in age from 20 to 52 years, with no difference between the groups (mean 41.7 versus 43.2, P = 0.17). The racial composition of the morbidly obese group was 67.7% white and 32.3% African American or Hispanic, and the urogynecology clinic group was 83.8% white and 14.0% African American or Hispanic (P = 0.007). A comparison of other medical conditions

Comment

The results of this study have shown that the effect of UI was lower in morbidly obese women than in women seeking urogynecologic care, despite being matched for UI severity. We hypothesized that the impact of UI in morbidly obese women might be overshadowed by other more salient comorbid conditions or by the obesity itself. Our findings have demonstrated that factors are present in addition to severity that influence the personal impact of UI. The threshold for impairment caused by UI could

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