ABSTRACT
Stress incontinence is the most commonly reported type of urinary incontinence in women. In a large epidemiological study of 27,936 women from Norway (2) overall 25% of women reported urinary incontinence of whom 7% considered it to be significant, and the prevalence of incontinence increased with age. When considering the type of incontinence, 50% of women complained of stress, 11% urge, and 36% mixed incontinence. The prevalence of urinary incontinence among nulliparous women ranged from 8% to 32% and increased with age. In general, parity was associated with incontinence and the first delivery was the most significant. In the age group 20 to 34 years the relative risk (RR) of stress incontinence was 2.7 (95% CI: 2.0-3.5) for primiparous women and 4.0 (95% CI: 2.5-6.4) for multiparous women. There was a similar association for mixed incontinence although not for urge incontinence (3) .
