Urinary leakage is frequent in outpatient chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Urinary incontinence (UI) is described as any involuntary leakage of urine in which cough is a risk factor. Cough is a common symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and may be associated with UI. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the urinary leakage frequency and the UI impact on the life's quality of people with COPD and characterizing the cough presence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a descriptive study carried out in people with COPD.  Data collection was done at the Department of Life Sciences II/UNEB.  The International Consultation Incontinence Short-Form (ICIQ-SF) was applied to assess the frequency of urinary leakage and the King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ) for the impact on quality of life. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (v.22.0), described as central tendency, dispersion and proportions and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Thirty people were evaluated with the mean age 66.7±8.6 years. Eleven people (36.7%) complained of UI, seven (63.3%) were women. The average ICIQ-SSF score was 5.9±4.4. Twenty-eight participants (93.3%) had chronic cough. The domain of greatest impact of the KHQ was “general health perception”. CONCLUSION: UI frequency in people with COPD was 35.7% and cough was 93.3%. People with leakage urinary (36,7%) reported some interference in daily life. It is important to include UI assessment to be clear the clinical management of their health status.