New research from the University of Bergen (UiB), Norway, shows that a woman who’s mother has urinary incontinence has a 30 percent greater chance for incontinence herself.
For the first time, a larger study of the relationship of inheritance and urinary incontinence has been conducted. The results, which are now being published in the British Medical Journal, show that genetic relationships play a role.
"Many illness have a generic component. So seen from that point of view, the results are not surprising. But it says something about the impact of inheritance in relation to other non-risk factors", says the main author of the study, Yngvild Skaatun Hannestad.
Hannestad is a doctor with the Women’s Clinic, Haukeland University Hospital and postdoctor with The Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care at the University of Bergen (UiB).
She has come to the conclusion that the occurrence of urinary incontinence is 30 percent higher within a group of women who have mothers with incontinence than the those who did not.
Further, the chance for problems are two to three time higher among those who have both mother and grandmother with urinary incontinence. Among those who had an older sister with incontinence, the occurrence was 60 percent higher than in the group of woman who’s older sister was not incontinent.
The results are based on analysing 6,000 mothers and their approximately 7,500 daughters. In addition, older and younger sisters are included in the questionnaire-based research.