Urinary incontinence after multiple gestation and delivery: impact on quality of life

An anonymous 77-item urogenital symptom questionnaire was administered to 769 women with a history of previous multifetal gestation and delivery, including long forms of the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ) and Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI). IIQ and UDI scores were analyzed using univariate and multivariate regression to determine the impact of incontinence on quality of life (QOL). Mean age was 37 years (22-75), and nearly half [49.8% (365)] reported at least one type of incontinence. Higher mean UDI scores were reported by women with stress incontinence (SI) (12.3 vs 4.7, p=0.0001), urge incontinence (UI) (14.9 vs 5.7, p=0.0001), and mixed incontinence (15.1 vs 6.2, p=0.0001) compared to continent women. Similarly, higher mean IIQ scores were associated with SI (6.9 vs 1.9,p=0.0001), UI (9.4 vs 2.2,p=0.0001), and mixed incontinence (9.3 vs 2.7, p=0.0001). In conclusion, among "mothers of multiples," stress and urge urinary incontinence were associated with strongly adverse effects on QOL at a young age.