No one wants to talk about it. Patients don't bring it up. Physicians don't ask. Meanwhile, millions suffer in silence as urinary incontinence erodes their quality of life. Misconceptions about incontinence abound among health-care professionals and the public alike.
Incontinence is also more common in older people.
It's not surprising that about half of nursing home residents are incontinent since it's a major cause of institutionalization, according to numerous sources. But that doesn't mean it's a normal part of being a woman or of aging. It's treatable in the vast majority of people, most of whom have full continence restored. Despite its prevalence, urinary incontinence is widely underdiagnosed and underreported, and many health-care providers remain uneducated about it, according to a 1996 clinical practice guideline update from the Agency for Health Care Policy Research. It's also expensive.