The relationship between environmental and genetic risk factors in women with urinary incontinence

To compare environmental risk factors between women with and without genetic susceptibility to urinary incontinence.

We conducted a case-control study on women older than 18, diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or mixed urinary incontinence (MUI), between May 2008 and 2023. Cases were identified as being carriers of previously identified urinary incontinence-associated genetic variants. Environmental data, including age, BMI, parity, and diabetes status, were extracted from the patients' electronic health records, and genomic data were obtained from our institution's Biobank. The cohort included 2653 women (1055 with SUI and 1598 with MUI). Younger age was significantly associated with genome-wide association study positivity in the overall cohort (P = 0.0015) and in the MUI subgroup (P = 0.0149). Among women with MUI, diabetes was independently associated with genetic susceptibility (odds ratio = 2.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.06-5.10, P = 0.027).

Women with MUI and genetic susceptibility to urinary incontinence become symptomatic at a younger age and are more likely to have concomitant diabetes than those without identifiable genetic susceptibility. These findings suggest that genetic predisposition may modify the clinical presentation of urinary incontinence and interact with metabolic risk factors.