Effects of urinary incontinence on depressive symptoms and quality of life in women with reproductive age

Abstract

Purpose: To describe effects of urinary incontinence on depressive symptoms and quality of life (QoL) in women. Methods: Two hundred and sixty women with reproductive age were examined in this study. 61.5% (N= 160) had urinary incontinence. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to detect depressive symptoms. Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used to measure QoL. Results: Percentages of the incontinence types were found as 38.8% stress, 23.1% urge, 29.1% mixed, respectively. Incontinent women reported higher score in terms of depressive symptoms. Women with mixed urinary incontinence showed higher depressive symptoms. Incontinent women had also lower scores in terms of SF-36 survey results (p< 0.05). While women with stress urinary incontinence reported lower score in terms of physical functioning of the SF-36 survey, women with mixed type showed lower score in terms of role-emotional domain. Increased incontinence duration led to lower scores in mental health and general mental perception domains. Conclusion: Urinary incontinence had negative effects on depressive symptoms among incontinent women. This situation negatively affects QoL.