The prevalence of urinary incontinence in American Indian women from a South Dakota tribe.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the prevalence and associated risk factors for urinary incontinence in a Northern Plains tribe of American Indian women.

METHODS

The Urogenital Distress Inventory-Short Form was used to assess urinary incontinence in a sample of American Indian women from one tribe. This was a cross-sectional convenience sampling of 234 eligible participants. Participant's ages ranged from 18 to 80 years. Stata/Se 9.1 software was used in statistical analysis.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of urinary stress incontinence was 15.4%, urgency incontinence 2.14%, and mixed incontinence 20.5%. Both stress and urgency incontinence was found to be low in this sample population.

CONCLUSIONS

A reduced prevalence of stress and urgency incontinence is seen in our sample. Our study group showed a high prevalence of known risk factors associated with urinary incontinence. We intend to extend our study for further understanding of this patient population.