Cystitis as a correlate of female urinary incontinence

The objectives of the research were to study the association between prevalent urge and stress urinary incontinence (UI) and a history of cystitis in adult females. A cross-section of the adult female population, aged 30–59 years, in the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark, was studied, using self-reported data based on postal questionnaires. The sample consisted of 3114 women, out of whom 2613 (84%) delivered the information requested. The main outcome measures were period prevalence in 1987 of episodes of UI provoked by physical stress and UI associated with a feeling of urge, prevalence of experience of episodes of cystitis and UI related to cystitis in adult life, and prevalence of relative risks, as indicated by odds ratio (OR), of UI conditional on cystitis experience. Results indicated that the 1987 period prevalences of UI provoked by physical stress and UI associated with a feeling of urge were 15% and 9%, respectively. Forty-five per cent reported a history of cystitis and 10% of UI during episodes of cystitis. Both UI provoked by stress and UI associated with a feeling of urge were significantly correlated to cystitis (OR 2.1, P<0.0001, and 1.8, P<0.0001, respectively) and to UI during episodes of cystitis (OR 7.1, P<0.0001, and 5.7, P<0.0001, respectively). When corrected for the stress aspect, UI being associated with a feeling of urge showed no association of its own to a history of cystitis. However, stress and urge aspects were both correlated to the experience of UI during episodes of cystitis. The prevalence of experience of cystitis increased with increasing number of urologic (per operation OR 2.1, P<0.0001) and gynecologic operations (per operation OR 1.5, P<0.0001), e.g. curretage (per operation OR 1.2, P<0.001), but not with the number of abdominal operations or the number of childbirths. It was concluded that cystitis may be an important component of UI etiology. Stress and not urge UI seems to be the key type related to a history of cystitis in general. The experience of UI during cystitis is connected to both stress and urge UI. A history of cystitis may possibly itself by initiated by surgery.