Comparison of anxiety between patients with mixed incontinence and those with stress urinary incontinence

Abstract

Some authors insist that patients with mixed incontinence (MI) suffer from more anxiety than those with pure stress urinary incontinence (SUI) due to the added emotional stress caused by various symptoms of an overactive bladder. We objectively evaluated and compared the degree of anxiety between the two groups. Among 172 patients who presented with urinary incontinence, 118 showed MI and 54 SUI. They were surveyed regarding their anxiety using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questionnaire. The mean BAI score was 12.0+/-8.8 in the MI group and 7.8+/-5.2 in the SUI group and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). This study provides objective evidence that patients with MI have a higher degree of anxiety than those with pure SUI. Therefore, we suggest that doctors should pay more attention to anxiety symptoms when caring for patients with MI.