Prevalence of urinary incontinence and the level of knowledge among diabetic patients: a preliminary study / Aima Nabila Abdul Basid

Urinary incontinence (UI) which is also known as urinary leakage is a common bladder problem yet not well understood, affecting population all over the world with its prevalence increased with age. Many international studies showed high prevalence of UI in diabetes patients as well as significant association between risk factors of UI and presence of UL However, up to this knowledge, there was no data available in Malaysia. Hence, this preliminary study was conducted to determine the prevalence of UI among diabetic patients, its association with patients' characteristics and the level of knowledge that the patients have on UI problem. A questionnaire-based survey was done on randomly selected 104 diabetes mellitus patients. Revised Urinary Incontinence Scale (RUIS) and Incontinence Quiz (IQ) were used to determine presence ofUI and level of knowledge on UI respectively. Non-parametric Chi Square Tests were used to investigate the associations between the variables while Mann­ Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis Test for significant difference findings. The results showed that the prevalence of UI among diabetes patients was 56%. Among each gender group, the UI prevalence was 69% and 42% for females and males respectively. There was a significant association between gender and presence of UI as well as types ofUI (p<0.05). Females showed high prevalence with mixed UI whilst urge UI was common in males. The level of knowledge on the UI problem was quite low, with a mean score of 4.4.±2.2. No correlation found between age and IQ scores. There were no differences between IQ scores and variables such as gender, race, level of education background and presence of UI (P>0.05).