Table 2.
Natural history of urinary incontinence symptoms over 10 years in incident casesa, according to urinary incontinence symptom severity at onset
| Women 39–56 years of age (NHS II) | Women 56–81 years of age (NHS) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||
| Sandvik Severity Index at Onset | Slight UI | Moderate UI | Severe UI | Slight UI | Moderate UI | Severe UI |
|
| ||||||
| UI cases | 2891 | 3348 | 1252 | 3206 | 4196 | 1974 |
|
| ||||||
| N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | |
| Persistence of UI symptoms at same severity as onsetb | 1808 (62) | 967 (29) | 546 (44) | 1945 (61) | 1217 (29) | 950 (48) |
| Progression of UI symptomsb | 538 (19) | 414 (12) | NA | 699 (22) | 702 (17) | NA |
| Progression to Moderate UI | 441 (15) | NA | NA | 516 (16) | NA | NA |
| Progression to Severe UI | 97 (4) | 414 (12) | NA | 183 (6) | 702 (17) | NA |
| Remission and Improvement of UI symptomsb | 323 (11) | 1725 (52) | 706 (56) | 229 (7) | 1889 (45) | 1024 (52) |
| Remission to no UI | 323 (11) | 286 (9) | 54 (4) | 229 (7) | 196 (5) | 64 (3) |
| Improvement to no UI or Slight UIc | NA | 1725 (52) | 319 (26) | NA | 1889 (45) | 411 (21) |
| Improvement to no UI, Slight UI, or Moderate UId | NA | NA | 706 (56) | NA | NA | 1024 (52) |
| Inconsistent patterns of UI symptomsb | 222 (8) | 242 (7) | 0 (0) | 333 (10) | 388 (9) | 0 (0) |
UI, urinary incontinence; NHS, Nurses’ Health Study; NA, not applicable
a
Incident UI cases in 2003 for NHS II and 2002 for NHS.
b
Patterns of UI symptoms were defined according to UI symptom categories at majority of follow-up points (i.e., 2+/3 time points) after UI onset
c
Numbers in this row also include women from the above row
d
Numbers in this row also include women from the above two row