Women with urinary incontinence have close to double the risk of major depression as women without incontinence, results of a new study indicate.
Drs. Donna E. Stewart and Simone E. Vigod of the University of Toronto evaluated data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, which included 69,000 women, 18 years of age or older, who were not pregnant.
Women with urinary incontinence and depression tended to be younger and slightly heavier than those without depression. Women with both conditions were also less likely to be married and more likely to have middle or high incomes.
Among women with urinary incontinence, those with depression consulted physicians three times as often as women without depression, and they had higher levels of self-reported distress and reported more work absences.