Costs associated with Female Urinary Incontinence: an integrative review of the literature

In women, the anatomical peculiarities of the pelvic floor and the risk factors for its dysfunction predispose women to suffer from Urinary Incontinence (UI), a condition that, although it does not pose a vital risk, negatively affects their quality of life and represents a high risk of the economic cost, still invisible. Objective: To describe the scientific evidence available regarding studies of costs associated with UI in women. Methods: Integrative review of the literature using the PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases as data sources, on studies of direct and indirect costs of UI. in women, published between 2009 and 2022. Using the search terms in Spanish and/or English: “Cost of illness”, “direct cost”, “indirect cost”, “urinary incontinence” and “woman”. The monetary values were adjusted from the date of the study to December 31,2021 and local currencies were converted to USD. Results: Of the 302 articles reviewed, 14 met the criteria for analysis. Some studies considered the estimate of the total economic burden including direct and indirect costs. The annual direct cost per capita ranges from US$ 153.71 to US$ 32,709 depending on the country, medication use and age, the indirect cost corresponds to an average 160 hours per year for presenteeism. Conclusion: In high-income countries, the economic burden for urinary incontinence is notorious, in Latin American and Caribbean countries there are no economic evaluations regarding it, to improve the benefits for women's health, it is advisable to update. Affiliation: aDoctoral Program in Biomedical Research Methodology and Public Health at the Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain bAssistant teacher. Department of Obstetrics and Neonatology of Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile cPublic Health Program, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile dDepartment of Epidemiology and Evaluation, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain. Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain *Corresponding author: Julieta Aránguiz-Ramírez, Doctoral Program in Biomedical Research Methodology and Public Health at the Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain. Citation: Julieta Aránguiz-Ramírez, Pedro OlivaresTirado, Xavier Castells-Oliveres. Costs associated with Female Urinary Incontinence: an integrative review of the literature. Obstetrics and Gynecology Research 5 (2022): 325-333. Received: December 11, 2022 Accepted: December 27, 2022 Published: December 30, 2022