Urinary incontinence and overactive bladder in patients attending the family practice physicians office: a pan-Slovenian cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey

Background: The aim of this pan-Slovene crossover survey was to assess how often the family practice physicians are dealing with urinary incontinence (UI) and overactive bladder (OAB) at their offices and to assess how are their patients with these disorders managed. Methods: In this questionnaire-based study we randomly selected 100 family practice physicians and their 50 patients, aged between 40-70 years, who had come consecutively to their offices. They all filled out questionnaires in a way that enabled their privacy and anonymity Data from questionnaires was managed by statistical software program SPSS. Results: 68 % of physicians and 3057 of their patients (88.9 %) agreed to participate in the study. In case of UI or OAB, physicians most commonly refer patients to other specialists, rule out uroinfection, explain them the pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) and prescribe pads. The UI prevalence in patients was 30.6 %, and was more common in women than in men (39.3 % VS. 14.1%, respectively, p < 0.001). Most patients were diagnosed with mixed UI (69.6 %), followed by stress UI (16.8 %) and urgency UI (13.6 %). OAB (urgency) was found in 35.2 % of patients and was more common in women than in men (40.6 % vs. 24.8 %, respectively, p < 0.001). Only 51.4% of women and 24.8% of men exactly knew what PFMT meant, however, the knowledge of bladder training was even worse (17.9 % of women and 7.7 % of men). Conclusions: Both, UI and OAB represent a significant problem among patients attending the family practice physician office. It seems that the knowledge of both dysfunctions is satisfactory among physicians. The majority of Patients would tell their doctors about UI and OAB and would also receive appropriate instructions regarding the bladder training and PFMT, both methods being very important for the prevention and treatment of these dysfunctions.