(Press-News.org) (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Regardless of their racial, ethnic, educational or socioeconomic background, women seek help for a frustrating -- and ubiquitous -- feature of becoming "a woman of a certain age:" the need be close to the women's room.
Those are the findings of a large study by UC Davis of urinary incontinence in menopausal women, based on data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a nine- year investigation of diverse menopausal women from six sites across the United States. The study is published online today in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The study, of more than 3,302 study participants from such diverse locations as Oakland, Calif., Pittsburgh and Detroit, found that most women, regardless of their backgrounds, talked with their health-care provider about urinary urgency incontinence -- leaking with the immediate need to reach the restroom -- or stress incontinence -- leaking with "coughing, laughing or sneezing" -- over the 9 years they were followed.
All of the participants were transitioning through menopause. Some 68 percent of women reported monthly or more frequent urinary incontinence, either leakage with urgency or with coughing, sneezing or exercising.
Earlier studies have suggested that African-American women and women of lower socioeconomic backgrounds were less likely to seek treatment.
"Our study results do not support previous findings that black women or women with lower socioeconomic circumstances are either less likely to seek care only at a higher level of bother of urinary incontinence frequency than white women or women of higher socioeconomic resources," said Elaine Waetjen, UC Davis professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and lead study author.
Rather, Waetjen said, the strongest associations with seeking care were worsening and persistence of symptoms. That is important, Waetjen said, because urinary incontinence is readily treatable.
"By discussing their urinary incontinence with a health-care provider, women can learn about the variety of treatment options available to them, from behavioral changes to medications and surgery," she said.
INFORMATION:
Other study authors include Guibo Xing, Joy Melnikow and Ellen Gold, all of UC Davis and Wesley O. Johnson of UC Irvine.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, Office of Research on Women's Health, Institute on Aging, and Institute of Nursing Research, including grants number DK092864, U01NR004061, U01AG012505, U012535, U01AG02531, U01AG02531, U01AG012539, U01AG012546, U01AG012553, U01AG012554, U01AG012495.
The UC Davis School of Medicine is among the nation's leading medical schools, recognized for its research and primary-care programs. For more information, visit UC Davis School of Medicine at http://medschool.ucdavis.edu.
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2015-- A healthcare, industry-first collaborative blueprint for labor and delivery safety, developed by four leading professional organizations in maternal health, calls for improving communication among clinicians, team leaders, administrators, health care providers, organizations, and patients to ensure fewer risks and better outcomes for mothers and babies.
The four collaborating organizations are the American College of Nurse-Midwives; the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal ...
Humans carry an average of one to two mutations per person that can cause severe genetic disorders or prenatal death when two copies of the same mutation are inherited, according to estimates published today in the journal Genetics. The new numbers were made possible by a long-term collaboration between medical researchers and a unique community that has maintained detailed family histories for many generations.
"These records offered a fantastic opportunity to estimate disease mutation carrier rates in a new way that disentangles the effects of genetic and socioeconomic ...
A new study has thrown light on how people can become killers in certain situations, showing how brain activity varies according to whether or not killing is seen as justified.
The study, led by Monash researcher Dr Pascal Molenberghs, School of Psychological Sciences, is published today in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Participants in the study played video games in which they imagined themselves to be shooting innocent civilians (unjustified violence) or enemy soldiers (justified violence). Their brain activity was recorded via functional ...
Dengue is a viral infection spread between humans by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including intense headaches and joint pains.
Published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Professor Cameron Simmons, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said that the discovery could lead to improved strategies to reduce the incidence of dengue.
"We did a 'real world' experiment and allowed mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia and uninfected mosquitoes ...
This news release is available in German. You're up in the mountains, the snow is blindingly white, and the sun is blazing down from the sky: ideal skiing conditions - but any skiers carrying the herpes virus might also have to reckon with the onset of cold sores after their day out. Increased exposure to UV radiation releases free radicals in the body. These put the body under oxidative stress, which weakens the immune system. And that in turn allows the herpes virus to prosper.
Oxidative stress has become a major topic; not only is it implicated in many diseases, ...
A new study shows that discrimination of gay and lesbian job seekers is commonplace within both private firms and the public sector in the UK.
The research, carried out by Dr Nick Drydakis of Anglia Ruskin University and published by SAGE in the journal Human Relations, involved 144 young people - all first-time job seekers - making 11,098 applications.
The study, the first of its kind ever conducted in the UK, found that gay applicants of both sexes are 5% less likely to be offered a job interview than heterosexual applicants with comparable skills and experience.
The ...
(SALT LAKE CITY)--Recent research has linked the thin air of higher elevations to increased rates of depression and suicide. But a new study shows there's also good news from up in the aspens and pines: The prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) decreases substantially as altitude increases.
In Utah, for example, an analysis of information from two national health surveys correlated with the average state elevation of 6,100 feet showed that the rate of diagnosed ADHD cases is about 50 percent of states at sea level. In Salt Lake City, whose elevation ...
DURHAM, N.C. - An estimated 9 percent of adults in the U.S. have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and have access to guns, according to a study published this month in Behavioral Sciences and the Law. The study also found that an estimated 1.5 percent of adults report impulsive anger and carry firearms outside their homes.
Angry people with ready access to guns are typically young or middle-aged men, who at times lose their temper, smash and break things, or get into physical fights, according to the study co-authored by scientists at Duke, Harvard, and Columbia ...
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 8, 2015 -- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the western world. A new study published in the Journal of Hepatology shows that exercise, regardless of frequency or intensity, benefits obese and overweight adults with NAFLD.
NAFLD is considered the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome and is commonly associated with obesity and diabetes. There are no approved drug treatments for NAFLD, but lifestyle interventions such as diet, exercise, and the resulting weight loss have ...
A July, 2014 Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer by acting Surgeon General Dr. Boris Lushniak points out that indoor tanning is "strongly associated with increased skin cancer risk," but stops short of reporting that tanning causes cancer. A University of Colorado Cancer Center opinion published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine points out that UV tanning meets the same criteria as smoking as a cause of cancer and argues that announcing the causality could save lives.
"In 1964 when the Surgeon General finally reported that smoking causes lung cancer, ...
