ABSTRACT
Background: Urinary Incontinence is often underreported, undiagnosed and untreated. Though the prevalence increases with age it can occur even in younger age women. Validated questionnaires are available to establish the association of risk factors and diagnose the type of incontinence. Objective: To study risk factors and the impact of Urinary Incontinence on quality of life in women. Methods: Descriptive Cross-Sectional study was carried out among 230 women with symptoms of urinary incontinence. ICIQ-FLUTS a brief and psychometrically robust patient-completed questionnaire for evaluating female lower urinary tract symptoms and impact on quality of life (QoL) was used. The data was analysed using proportions. Results: Most commonly affected age group was 41-50 years (42%). Storage phase symptoms were seen in 78.6% women, and Incontinence was seen in 36.08% women. Stress incontinence was commonest (55.65%) with an average bothersome score of 3.1/10. Moderate to severe degree of Stress Incontinence with a score >5/10 was seen in 15.65% of women. Frequency incontinence was seen in 33.47% of respondents. Average bothersome score of stress and urge incontinence was 3.1/10. They showed as average score of 1.36 and 1.44 respectively. Nocturia was commonest symptom in storage phase symptoms (78.69%). Urgency and Frequency was noted in 55.65% and 50.43% of women respectively. Intermittency was the commonest in voiding phase symptoms seen in 19.56% with an average score of 1.44/4. Conclusion: Stress urinary incontinence was the most common type of urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinency significantly affected the quality of life of women.