Economic burden of urge urinary incontinence in the workplace

Quantify incremental employee medical, pharmacy, sick leave, short- and long-term disability, and workers' compensation costs, absence days, and turnover associated with urge urinary incontinence (UUI) in employees.

This retrospective 2001-2011 database comparison of employees with UUI versus those without UUI (controls) included employees aged 18.5 to 64.0 years at index, with 6-month preindex and 12-month postindex health plan enrollment. Logistic and generalized linear models measured postindex costs, absences, and turnover.

The study included 1448 employees with UUI and 337,796 controls. Employees with UUI had statistically significantly higher medical (131% higher), pharmacy (52%), sick leave (30%), and short-term disability (74%) costs and more sick leave (22%) and short-term disability (99%) days than controls (all P < 0.02).

Employees with UUI had 117% greater medical and pharmacy costs, 47% greater total absence costs, and 63% more absence days than employees without UUI.