Women with Urinary Incontinence More Likely to Suffer Depression: Study

Millions of women around the world suffer from a common problem known as urinary incontinence, which is involuntary leakage of urine. Women suffering from this find it embarrassing to discuss the issue.

Focusing on this, a new finding states that middle aged women who suffer from urinary incontinence are more likely to suffer depression.

The latest Research was conducted at the University of Adelaide, which says that if women seek medical advice there is help for this problem. This study was conducted by researcher Jodie Avery.

The study found that middle aged women (43-65) who suffer from this incontinence are more likely to be depressed compared to older women in the age group of 65-89.

Urinary incontinence can have a major impact on the victim's quality of life. Defined as a loss of bladder control this problem can range from mild leaking to an uncontrollable wetting.  It gets common as age increases.  This problem occurs when muscles get too weak or too active. Nearly 35 percent of the female population is affected with this and pregnancy remains the prime cause of this problem in women. More the number of children a woman has higher are the chances of becoming incontinent.

"Women with both incontinence and depression scored lower in all areas of quality of life because of the impact of incontinence on their physical wellbeing," says Avery, a PhD student and Senior Research Associate with the University's School of Population Health and School of Medicine. "Key issues for younger women affected by incontinence are family, sexual relationships and sport and leisure activities."

She continues to say that this problem hits a younger women's self esteem the most when compared to the older women who are more resilient and easily accept this medical problem.

Based on the study, the researcher states that almost 20 percent of the incontinent population suffers from depression. And this should be known by both the victims and GPs.

Those who are victims of incontinence are hesitant to seek help but gradually there is a change in this attitude, It is very crucial for the sufferers to seek medical advice because in certain cases the problem can be cured with an operation. At the same time it is very important for GPs to know the fact that there is a strong association between incontinence and depression, which should be cured to improve quality of life, says Avery.