Eureka! Institutional Repository

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM)constitutes one of the most common diseases of the elderly, holding numerous and severe complications. Various studies have identified the relationship between DM and the frequency and severity of the symptoms of urinary incontinence. Objective: To explorethe effect of DM on the occurrence, severity and frequency of the symptoms of stress incontinence (SI), urge incontinence (UI) and nocturia within the Greek female population. Methods: Overall, 151 female subjects,outpatients of the Internal Medicine department of the General Hospital of Thessaloniki “Agios Pavlos”, were included in the study. Demographic data and information concerning their past medical history was collected during their first visit. Then, the patients were instructed to monitor their incontinence symptoms for one month and, after this period,they documented their symptoms in three separate questionnaires (ICIQ-UI-SF, ICIQ-OAB and NNES-Q) during their second visit. The association of DM and other factors (age, BMI, height, place of residence, DM past history, comorbidities, any medications and birth-giving history) with the results of the questionnaires, was analyzed. Results: Of the 151 patients, 77 (51.0%) did not have DM (Group X), 16 (10.6%) had DM type I (Group I) and 58 (38.4%) DMII (GroupΙΙ). The overall median age was 66 years (IQR=7), 74.8% suffered from at least one comorbidity and 89,4% was under some kind of medication. Due to the violation of the homogeneity requirement between Group I and the other two Groups, all comparisons were performed only between Groups X and II. Group IIscored higher than Group X in all questionnaires (p<0.001, in all tests). This difference was retained after possible confounders were controlled. Conclusions: DM is strongly and independently associated with higher scores in the questionnaires evaluating SI, UI and nocturia. Therefore, in clinical practice, patients with DMII must be followed-up for these symptoms and their effect on the quality of life.