Introduction

The unintended passing of urine is known as urinary incontinence. Millions of people are thought to be impacted by this widespread issue. Based on the definitions from the International Continence Society (ICS), urinary incontinence (UI) changed from ‘the involuntary loss of urine that is a social or hygienic problem and is objectively demonstrable’ in 1979 (Venema & Kramer, 1986) to ‘the complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine’ in 2002 (Abrams et al., 2003). Large epidemiologic investigations, which typically rely on surveys or interviews, make the first definition unworkable. The current definition, however, is overly inclusive and can potentially encompass any patient who has ever experienced even one episode of UI throughout their lifetime. Despite this disagreement, the most current ICS report recommends that UI be further defined by including frequency, severity, risk factors, social and sanitary consequences, impact on quality of life, and whether the individual seeks care (Abrams et al., 2003).

Numerous epidemiologic studies demonstrate that the incidence of UI increases with age, with estimates of prevalence among community-dwelling patients ranging from 2 to 58 percent. Many publications estimate that the prevalence of UI among institutionalized patients is between 40 and 60 percent (Greer et al., 2015; Herzog & Fultz, 1990; Milsom et al., 1993; Thom, 1998). UI is not a static condition despite its high prevalence rates. Rather, it is a dynamic condition in which high remission rates accompany high incidence rates, and individuals cycle between continence and incontinence (Hunskaar et al., 2000).