Differences Between Men and Women With Urinary Incontinence as They Seek Medical Care

To compare characteristics between men and women as they seek medical care for their urinary incontinence (UI), examining patients' experience both with primary care (PCP) and UI specialists.

This is a cross-sectional study utilizing the National Association for Continence (NAFC)-sponsored adult patient-reported survey data from March 2020 to April 2020. Descriptive statistics were calculated as percentages, and comparisons were performed using a chi-squared test for categorical variables. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05.

Two hundred sixty-six individuals with UI who had sought medical care completed the survey during the study period. One hundred twenty-four (47%) were women (W) and 142 (53%) were men (M). The study population was older, with the majority of respondents either 45-64 (35%) or 65+ (48%). Most participants sought care for their UI within 2 years of UI onset (59%) and first spoke to their PCP about their UI (64.7%). Women were more likely to endorse a severe emotional impact (OR 1.63, CI 1.04-2.56, p = 0.04) and physical impact (OR 1.90, CI 1.19-3.04, p = 0.01) of their UI on their life. In patients who spoke to their PCP about their UI, women were more likely to bring it up at a routine checkup, while men were more likely to make an appointment to discuss their UI. Men were more likely to endorse that their PCP had spoken to them about a wide range of treatment options and were more likely to have been started on a treatment plan. Men were also more likely to be started on a medication for their UI by their PCP compared to women. PCP referral rates to specialty care were higher amongst men. For those who received a referral, there was a high rate of specialist follow-up (94.0% vs. 98.5% p = 0.19). Men were mostly referred to urology (W 47% vs. 94% M, p < 0.01), with women more frequently referred to gynecology (W 15.9% vs. 0% M, p < 0.01) and urogynecology (W 25.0% vs. 0.9% M, p < 0.01). Specialists were more likely to speak about absorbent products with men compared to women (M 52.5% vs. W 30.7%, p = 0.002).

Though women endorsed more severe impact of UI on their life, men were more likely to be counseled on a wide range of treatment options, started on a treatment plan, prescribed medication for their UI, and be referred to specialty care for treatment of their UI.

This study was not registered with clinicaltrials.gov because it used previously collected, deidentified data.

gov indicates that observational studies should be registered as a Patient Registry for prospective data collection, which does not apply to this study as the patients included in this survey are not followed.