Female Urinary Incontinence in Africa: Prevalence Estimates from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) among women in African countries. Different types of UI, racial distributions, geographic locations, and methodological approaches were analyzed and compared.

A systematic search was conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, and African Journals Online (AJOL). Studies published between 2000 and 2023 in French or English were included if they assessed the prevalence of UI among adult women (≥18 years) in Africa. A meta-analysis using a random-effects model was performed. The PRISMA checklist guided the reporting of this review.

A total of 22 studies were included. The pooled prevalence of UI was 24% (95% CI: 17-33%), with individual study estimates ranging from 2% to 80%. The pooled prevalence was 28% (95% CI: 19-38%) for urgency urinary incontinence (UUI), 35% (95% CI: 26-45%) for stress urinary incontinence (SUI), and 31% (95% CI: 18-45%) for mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). High heterogeneity was observed across studies (I² ranging from 72.6% to 99.8%; p 0.001 for Cochran's Q test in all UI subcategories).

Urinary incontinence affects approximately one-quarter of adult women in Africa. However, the high heterogeneity in prevalence estimates-related to differences in methodology and UI definitions-limits the ability to draw firm conclusions.