The prevalence rate of urinary incontinence in adult women is between 10-30%. According to the survey conducted in 1998 in 11 countries in Asia by APCAB (Asia Pacific Continence Advisory), about 15.1% of women and 5.8% of man suffered from urinary incontinence.

Although many women have urinary incontinence, only few really need to seek for treatments.

Research Analysis in Taiwan

The results indicated that 23.1% of adult female patient had symptoms of urinary incontinence, but most of them were sporadic, while only 3.4% were regular patients (experienced urinary incontinence twice or more each month).

Of the people with urinary incontinence, 76.2% of them were not bothered by this issue because the symptoms were very mild.

Based on these numbers, only 0.81% or 800 women out of 100,000 need medical assistance for urinary incontinence.

Types of Urinary Incontinence

• Stress UI
• Urge UI
• Mixed UI
• Overflow UI
• Total UI

Overactive Bladder

Urge urinary incontinence refers to the involuntary contraction of bladder that causes urinary leak. There are two types of urgent UI: detrusor hypereflexia and detrusor overactivity or detrusor instability.

Many factors can cause “detrusor overactivity”, but the current examination methods still cannot identify the causes (idiopathic). For patients to understand this disease, doctors use the term “overactive bladder” to explain.

This term is easy to understand literally and is also beneficial for diagnosis and treatments.

Attention has been paid on overactive bladder epidemiology researches and clinical definition. Overall speaking, patients suffer from urgent UI only when overactive bladder is server to a certain point. Patients with minor overactive bladder might only have symptoms such as frequent urination, urge urination and urination at night.

The researches in Europe showed that it was common to have overactive bladder, especially for people above the age of 40. About 60-70% of the patients with overactive bladder can overcome involuntary contractions with good urination control mechanism (such as reflective contraction of urethral sphincter or fast urination) and left with “frequent urination and urge urination”. Only 30-40% of the patients suffer from urinary incontinence for not being able to overcome the issue.