Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Oct;9(5):571-578.
doi: 10.1007/s41999-018-0102-y. Epub 2018 Aug 29.

Association between urinary incontinence and frailty: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Nicola Veronese  1 , Pinar Soysal  2 , Brendon Stubbs  3   4   5 , Alessandra Marengoni  6 , Jacopo Demurtas  7 , Stefania Maggi  8 , Mirko Petrovic  9 , Carlos Verdejo-Bravo  10 ; Special Interest Group on Urinary Incontinence; Special Interest Group of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis for Healthy Aging, European Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS)
Collaborators, Affiliations
Review

Association between urinary incontinence and frailty: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Nicola Veronese et al. Eur Geriatr Med. 2018 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: Urinary incontinence (UI) and frailty are common geriatric syndromes. Although literature increasingly supports a relationship between these two conditions, no systematic review and meta-analysis has been performed on this topic. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the potential association between UI and frailty, through a meta-analytic approach.

Methods: A systematic search in major databases was undertaken until 15th March 2018 for studies reporting the association between UI and frailty. The prevalence of UI in people with frailty (vs. those without) was pooled through an odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), with a random-effects model. The other outcomes were summarized descriptively.

Results: Among 828 papers, 11 articles were eligible, including 3784 participants (mean age 78.2 years; 55.1% women). The prevalence of UI was 39.1% in people with frailty and 19.4% in those without. A meta-analysis with five studies (1540 participants) demonstrated that UI was over twice as likely in frail people versus those without (OR 2.28; 95% CI 1.35-3.86; I2 = 61%). One cross-sectional study, adjusting for potential confounders and one longitudinal study confirmed that UI is significantly associated with frailty. In two cross-sectional studies, using adjusted analyses, frailty was more common in people with UI.

Conclusion: Urinary incontinence is twice as common in older people with frailty compared to older people without frailty. Screening and the development of interventions for UI and frailty could prove useful for this common comorbidity.

Keywords: Aged; Frailty; Meta-analysis; Urinary incontinence.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Aharony L, De Cock J, Nuotio MS, Pedone C, Rifel J, Vande Walle N, Velghe A, Vella A, Verdejo-Bravo C (2017) Consensus document on the management of urinary incontinence in older people. Eur Geriatr Med 8:202–209 - DOI
    1. Suskind AM (2017) Frailty and lower urinary tract symptoms. Curr Urol Rep 18:67 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cesari M, Calvani R, Marzetti E (2017) Frailty in older persons. Clin Geriatr Med 33:293–303 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Junius-Walker U, Onder G, Soleymani D, Wiese B, Albaina O, Bernabei R, Marzetti E, ADVANTAGE JA WP4 group (2018) The essence of frailty: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis on frailty concepts and definitions. Eur J Intern Med. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2018.04.023 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Verdejo-Bravo C (2012) Geriatric Urinary Incontinence: special concerns on the frail elderly. En Urinary Incontinence, pp 113–130

LinkOut - more resources