About 1 in 6 women have stress incontinence.1
But the real number of women affected is probably much higher. This is because many women with stress incontinence don't like to admit they have the problem. They never see their doctor about it, so they're not included in the numbers.
In one survey in the United Kingdom, half the women questioned said they'd leaked urine at some time in the past year.2 The survey included more than 1,000 women with an average age of 48.
In the United States, a study found that stress incontinence affects well over a third of women over the age of 60 and about half of the 1.5 million people in U.S. nursing homes.3
You can get stress incontinence at any age but it's more common in older people.4
- Sommer P, Bauer T, Nielsen KK, et al. Voiding patterns and prevalence of incontinence in women: a questionnaire survey. British Journal of Urology. 1990; 66: 12-15. 2393793
- Kuh D, Cardozo L, Hardy R. Urinary incontinence in middle aged women: childhood enuresis and other lifetime risk factors in a British prospective cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 1999; 36: 31-43.
- Berghmans LCM, Hendriks HJM, Bo K, et al. Conservative treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. British Journal of Urology. 1998; 82: 181-191. 9722751
- Ballanger P, Rischamnn P. Female urinary incontinence: an overview of a report presented to the French Urological Association. European Urology. 1999; 36: 31-43.
