Differences Between Men and Women With Urinary Incontinence as They Seek Medical Care.

OBJECTIVE: To compare characteristics between men and women as they seek medical care for their urinary incontinence (UI), examining patients' experience both with primary care (PCP) and UI specialists. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study utilizing the National Association for Continence (NAFC)-sponsored adult patient-reported survey data from March 2020 to April 2020. Descriptive statistics were calculated as percentages, and comparisons were performed using a chi-squared test for categorical variables. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Two hundred sixty-six individuals with UI who had sought medical care completed the survey during the study period. One hundred twenty-four (47%) were women (W) and 142 (53%) were men (M). The study population was older, with the majority of respondents either 45-64 (35%) or 65+ (48%). Most participants sought care for their UI within 2 years of UI onset (59%) and first spoke to their PCP about their UI (64.7%). Women were more likely to endorse a severe emotional impact (OR 1.63, CI 1.04-2.56, p = 0.04) and physical impact (OR 1.90, CI 1.19-3.04, p = 0.01) of their UI on their life. In patients who spoke to their PCP about their UI, women were more likely to bring it up at a routine checkup, while men were more likely to make an appointment to discuss their UI. Men were more likely to endorse that their PCP had spoken to them about a wide range of treatment options and were more likely to have been started on a treatment plan. Men were also more likely to be started on a medication for their UI by their PCP compared to women. PCP referral rates to specialty care were higher amongst men. For those who received a referral, there was a high rate of specialist follow-up (94.0% vs. 98.5% p = 0.19). Men were mostly referred to urology (W 47% vs. 94% M, p < 0.01), with women more frequently referred to gynecology (W 15.9% vs. 0% M, p < 0.01) and urogynecology (W 25.0% vs. 0.9% M, p < 0.01). Specialists were more likely to speak about absorbent products with men compared to women (M 52.5% vs. W 30.7%, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Though women endorsed more severe impact of UI on their life, men were more likely to be counseled on a wide range of treatment options, started on a treatment plan, prescribed medication for their UI, and be referred to specialty care for treatment of their UI. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was not registered with clinicaltrials.gov because it used previously collected, deidentified data. CLINICALTRIALS: gov indicates that observational studies should be registered as a Patient Registry for prospective data collection, which does not apply to this study as the patients included in this survey are not followed.