ABSTRACT
Worldwide, urinary incontinence is a common and distressing health problem with often huge social consequences. In western countries approximately 10% of all adult women report leakage at least weekly [1]. Increasing prevalence of 20%–30% during young adult life to 30%–40% around the menopause to 30%–50% in the elderly has been reported by some authors [2,3]. Others report a prevalence of any urinary incontinence of 22% [4] to 29% [1] in older women, severe urinary incontinence in 7% [1]. Among nursing home residents, this percentage increases to 42%–72.5% [4,5]. Urinary incontinence is associated with nursing home admission from the community [6].
