Predictors of Delay in Treatment of Urinary Incontinence

Study design and participants:

A cross-sectional survey of 198 women with incontinence was conducted at lady Willingdon hospital from June 1, 2019, to November 30, 2020. The medical officers of gynecology outdoor scrutinized all the women who had complained of urinary incontinence for at least one year and did not previously pursue any treatment for this problem.

246 participants who fulfilled the study criteria signed written informed consent and got their Proforma filled either by themselves or by assisting the medical officer.

In previous studies, delay to the treatment of >3 years was considered significant; thus, all eligible women were divided into two groups based on the delay of up to three years and more than 3 years according to the duration of incontinence as stated by the subject and studied for predictors of incontinence.

Ethical approval This study had ethical approval from King Edward Medical University, Pakistan. the study was conducted according to the Declaration of the Helsinki and obtained informed consent from participants before the study commenced. All information collected from the participants was kept confidential, and Proformas were kept in a file in the custody of the main investigator after entering data in the spss datasheet.

Statistical analysis. The study results were calculated with SPSS version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The means and standard deviation were used to calculate the age of subjects and the duration of delay in seeking treatment. The subjects with potential risk factors were represented as numbers and percentages. The subjects with a short delay(less than or equal to three years) and a long delay (greater than three years) were presented as numbers and percentages for reporting their incontinence. Univariate analysis was performed on all risk factors of delay and then multivariate analysis on significant risk factors to determine the most commonly shared factors for delay in seeking treatment. P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Inclusion criteria

• The women who had the complaint of urinary incontinence for at least one year and did not pursue any treatment for this problem previously.
• age greater than 18 years
• urinary leakage for once a week during the previous three months.
• Incontinent women with or without chronic medical problems

Exclusion criteria

• urinary tract infection
• patients with pregnancy or within three months postpartum
• severe mental illness (unable to answer the questionnaire correctly)
• terminal stage illness (liver disease, kidney disease, or malignancy)