~ 484 ~ ISSN Print: 2394-7500 ISSN Online: 2394-5869 Impact Factor: 5.2 IJAR 2020; 5(7): 484-492 www.allresearchjournal.com Received: 03-05-2020 Accepted: 07-06-2020 Hadeel Al Issa Family and Community, Department of Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Asrar O Abduldaiem Family and Community, Department of Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Mohie Selim Family and Community, Department of Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Mostafa Kofi Family and Community, Department of Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Corresponding Author: Hadeel Al Issa Family and Community, Department of Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Quality of life among adult Saudi women with urinary incontinence in Riyadh, KSA Hadeel Al Issa, Asrar O Abduldaiem, Mohie Selim and Mostafa Kofi Abstract Aim: Urinary incontinence is not life-threatening but it can have a profound effect on HRQoL quality of life comparable to diabetes, AIDS, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. It has a substantial impact on women’s social, physical and psychological well-being such as depression and anxiety. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of UI and its types on the quality of life of adult Saudi women in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey. 340 women aged 18 years and older, agreed to participate in the study, were selected who attended the primary health care centers affiliated to the ministry of health, Riyadh, KSA. the Arabic version of the Kings health questionnaire was utilized to measure Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) of patients with UI. Results: Out of 340 women recruited, 145 (42.6%) were diagnosed as having UI. Their age ranged between 18-72 year old with a mean 36±12.46 years. in this study UUI was of highest significance, followed by SUI and then MUI. The negative UI impact was most apparent on the physical activities, where 16.2% of the patients expressed that they were slightly or moderately affected. Conclusions: Forty-two percent of the women in Riyadh suffered from urinary incontinence. It can adversely impair their HRQL. Most of the women did not seek medical care. In the recent years, researchers have shifted to other questions regarding investigating more in-depth domains to understand UI, and if they have an impact on quality of life, and if there is, what would the impact be. Keywords: QoL, urinary incontinence, women, Saudi Arabia Introduction Urinary incontinence (UI) is a widespread health problem, considered one of the major diseases with sex differences in etiology, prevalence, and management, affecting both sexes, but it is especially common among old women [1] . It affects millions of women all over the world with significant and probably still underestimated rebounds on personal and social wellbeing [2] . Although it is still important to do researches in the diagnostic procedure of urinary incontinence, nowadays the focus of new researches has been shifted from only describing and evaluating the phenomenon of urinary incontinence to ask more details regarding the different kinds of urinary incontinence and how it affects the quality of life of a woman [3] . Urine incontinence is known to affect an individual’s health related quality of life (HRQL) greatly [4] . It is detrimental to the social, psychological and physical well-being of the sufferer [5] . The standardization committee of the International Continence Society (ICS) defines urinary incontinence (UI) as “any involuntary urine leak complaint”, it can be further defined as urgency, stress, or mixed UI, on the basis of a patient’s symptoms [6] . Estimation of the prevalence of UI in the general population remains a challenge, as shown by available (national and international) studies, which report that UI prevalence rates are between 15% and 69% in women [2] , with the peak to be in childbearing age group (up to 40%) and increasing in elderly to reach to 50% [7] . The inconsistency in prevalence estimation may be explained by differences in the definition and the assumption that people will openly declare their continence problems [8] . As population ages, the number of patients presenting to their primary care physicians with urologic problems are significantly increasing [1] . Most of the time Patients and the health care physician tend to neglect UI symptoms, accepting them as a normal part of aging, when in fact it’s not, and on many occasions, the problem is diagnosed only when symptoms have International Journal of Applied Research 2020; 5(7): 484-492