Urinary Incontinence
A JLA Working Partnership under construction

A JLA Working Partnership is currently being established which will consider the clinical area of urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinence, defined as the “demonstrable involuntary loss of urine”, can occur at all ages and is associated with a wide variety of conditions. For some urinary incontinence is an occasional slight leakage from the bladder, for others it is a complete inability to control voiding. For a number of reasons, the prevalence of urinary incontinence is difficult to establish, but commonly cited figures for “regular” urinary incontinence are those resulting from a 1995 Royal College of Physicians study: 8.75% of women <65, 15% of women >65, 3% of men <65 and 8.5% of men >65. It has been estimated that 1-2% of adults experience bedwetting, and 5-10% of 5-14 year olds are affected by bedwetting, daytime wetting or soiling.

This is a clinical area which is affected at all levels by the taboo which surrounds incontinence so that there is poor public and professional awareness both of the condition itself and of services and treatments available. Crucially, the stigma associated with incontinence may mean that consumers may be less likely to express their concerns and priorities relating to treatments than in other disease areas. In this sense it is an area to which a systematic method of gathering, collating and prioritising clinician and consumer views and questions is particularly appropriate.

The Partnership will involve patients, carers and professionals working together in order to identify questions of everyday clinical importance in the treatment and management of urinary incontinence which cannot be answered satisfactorily by existing research evidence. It is hoped that the recommendations of the Working Partnership will be taken into account in the commissioning of future research.

A Medical Research Council funded qualitative evaluation of the working partnership will inform the broader debate about consumer involvement in healthcare research agenda setting.

A protocol intended to inform the progress of the JLA Working Partnership on urinary incontinence has been prepared and can be accessed by clicking on the following link: JLA WP UI Protocol [PDF 214kb]
Brian Buckley Feb 2007

FOR A FULL LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS WITHIN THE UI WORKING PARTNERSHIP - click here (PDF)

Reports and Articles related to the progress of the UI Working Partnership:

Report of the Urinary Incontinence Working Partnership meeting
Tuesday 18 March 2008. This report describes the meeting and examines the progress of the UI WP in harvesting treatment uncertainties for prioritisation, and sets out actions for the future. For a copy of the report click here (PDF)

Press Release - InContact (Brian Buckley)
The project is being supported by over twenty leading patient and professional organisations. Incontact, the leading UK charity for people with bladder and bowel problems is one of the organisations supporting this important work. A simple questionnaire has been posted to its members and is also available on line at http://www.incontact.org/news-telling-researchers-what-to-research.html or http://www.mstrust.org.uk/information/clinical_uncertainties.jsp For full details of the press release click here (PDF)

Identifying and Harvesting Treatment Uncertainties
Letter to Urinary Incontinence Working Partnership - click here (PDF)
Identifying Uncertainties - click here (PDF)
Guidance notes - click here (PDF)

Urinary Continence Working Partnership Awareness Meeting –
23rd May 2007 - To see report of meeting click here (PDF)

Prioritising Research: Patients, Carers and Clinicians working together
Letter by Brian Buckley, published in the HSCNEWS issue 35, Feb 2007 (Page 56-57)

Barriers to effective care of incontinence - to see article click here (PDF)

Working together to identify research questions - to see article click here (PDF)

Back to top of page