[German Society for General Medicine--guidelines for urinary incontinence: content and development]

In this article, the authors of the "General Practitioners' Guideline to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Urinary Incontinence" describe the historical development of this evidence-based GPs' guideline for the management of urinary incontinence. The guideline's history is focused around the following points: 1. reasons for choosing the subject matter, 2. material and personnel expenses of the development process, 3. specific considerations regarding recommendations that will be applied to the primary care setting. The whole guideline project was based on the hypothesis that developing and implementing a clinical guideline for general practitioners in Germany would lead to better detection and treatment of cases of urinary incontinence. Hopefully, the guideline will contribute to a better quality of life of the persons affected and to a reduced number of "silent sufferers". Specifically, the targets to be addressed include the following: identifying and providing treatment to previously undiscovered sufferers of urinary incontinence implementing a universal standard of scientifically approved diagnostic strategies in family physician's offices enhancing the therapeutic options available to patients suffering from urinary incontinence in the community aiding primary care physicians with the diagnosis and treatment of people with urinary incontinence improving the interprofessional relationships with other carers in the field of urinary incontinence. The authors wish to thank the German Cochrane Centre and the Deutsche Krankenversicherung for organising the Cochrane Prize and thus promoting guideline development.