Treatment-seeking behavior in Hong Kong Chinese women with urinary symptoms

A pan-territory telephone survey was conducted in Hong Kong of Chinese women concerning urinary symptoms and their treatment preferences; 1500 women replied. One hundred and ninety-four (13%) of the 1500 subjects had urinary symptoms. Of these 194, 155 (10.3%) had stress incontinence, 64 (4.3%) had urgency, 10 (0.7%) had urge incontinence, 63 (4.2%) had frequency of urination, 64 (4.3%) had nocturia, 2 (0.1%) had enuresis, and 20 (1.3%) had incomplete emptying. Sixty-eight (35.1%) of the 194 symptomatic subjects sought medical advice (group 1) and 126 (64.9%) did not (group 2). In group 1, 28 (41.2%) sought medical advice from general practitioners, 26 (38.2%) from private specialists, 2 (2.9%) from Chinese herbalists and 12 (17.6%) from public hospitals. In group 2, 4 (3.2%) claimed they had no time, 119 (94.4%) did not think their symptoms were serious, and 11 (8.7%) did not know help was available. None of the subjects felt too embarrassed to seek medical advice, or felt that they could not afford medical attention. The strongest predictor for treatment-seeking behavior was the symptom of incomplete emptying (logistic regression, P=0.004). A substantial proportion of Hong Kong Chinese women with urinary symptoms seek medical advice for their symptoms. The symptom of incomplete emptying appears to be the strongest reason for them to do so.