[Toward a simplified method of classifying urinary incontinence in the elderly based on a multivariate analysis of...

The present study analyzes the main clinical types of urinary incontinence in the elderly population and its clinical-urodynamic correlation to facilitate definitive diagnosis.

The study was conducted in 948 elderly patients (382 male, 566 female; mean age 72.4 years) with urinary incontinence. Patient clinical and urodynamic records were reviewed. The most common clinical types were urge-incontinence (56.4%) and incontinence with coughing associated with urge-incontinence (32.3%); the latter type was the most common in women. The most frequent urodynamic diagnoses were isolated bladder instability (29.9%), followed by obstruction (15.6%) and stress incontinence (14%).

The most common symptom in bladder instability was urge-incontinence, while incontinence with coughing was found to be the most common symptom in urinary stress incontinence. A significant correlation was found between the postvoid residual urine and the main urodynamic diagnoses. Multivariate analysis showed that classification by clinical types of incontinence together with measurement of residual urine can facilitate diagnosis, although this approach has a low sensitivity for the main forms of isolated incontinence. The mixed forms require a urodynamic study.