Assessment of Temperament in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence : An Observational Study

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI), defined by the International Continence Society as “a complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine,” is a common problem affecting around 20%–30% of the adult population (1). The prevalence of UI in women varies from 4.8% to 58.4% in the world and has increased markedly in the recent decade, as revealed by a longitudinal population-based survey (2). Medical costs associated with UI are considerable, with annual expenditures similar to those on other chronic diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis in women, (3).The most common type of UI is stress urinary incontinence (SUI), defined by the International Continence Society as ‘‘the complaint of involuntary leakage on effort or exertion, or on sneezing or coughing,’’ accounting for almost 50% of cases in premenopausal women (4,5).