Prevalence of Incontinence in the Black Women's Health Study

Several epidemiological studies estimate the prevalence of incontinence, urinary (UI), fecal (FI), and dual (DI) in US women; however, none has specifically examined the prevalence of UI, FI, and DI in a large cohort of self-identified Black women. The primary objective was to estimate the prevalence of the incontinence types in the Black Women's Health Study (BWHS) and extrapolate these findings to Black women in the USA by integrating BWHS prevalence with the 2020 US Census data.

Among BWHS participants responding to the biennial follow-up questionnaire administered in 2011, we assessed the prevalence of UI in all women (N = 38,100) and the prevalence of FI and DI in post-menopausal women (N = 19,244). We then standardized age-specific prevalences from BWHS using the 2020 US Census weights to extrapolate findings to self-identified Black women in the USA. All analyses were conducted using R version 4.3.

Approximately one in two participants reported having UI at least once a year (50.6%). Among post-menopausal women, 14% reported any FI, and 10% reported DI. Extrapolating estimates from BWHS data to the 2020 US Census data for US Black women aged 35 years or older, approximately 5.6 million Black women (95% CI = 5.42-5.80 million) had UI, 784,529 women had FI (95% CI = 0.70-0.91 million), and 608,710 women had DI (95% CI = 0.53-0.72 million).

In this large study among community dwelling Black women, prevalence estimates of UI, FI, and DI are higher than previously reported, translating to over five million affected US Black women.