A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week shows one more benefit of weight loss: reducing urinary incontinence in women, a problem that affects more than 13 million U.S. women and costs the health care system an estimated $20 billion per year.
The clinical trial, which was conducted at The Miriam Hospital and a hospital in Birmingham, Ala., recruited a total of 338 obese and overweight women who had incontinence issues at least 10 times per week. The women were randomly assigned to either an intensive six-month weight-loss program of diet, exercise and behavior modification or to a group that received information about diet and exercise, but no training to help them change habits.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the Office of Research on Women’s Health, both part of the National Institutes of Health.
The women in the intensive weight-loss group lost an average 8 percent of their body weight (about 17 pounds) and reduced incontinence episodes by 47 percent. The other women lost only about 1.6 percent of body weight (about three pounds) and had 28 percent fewer episodes.
Obesity is a known risk factor for urinary incontinence, but conclusive evidence for the benefits of weight loss to correct the problem had been lacking. The study, the authors said, shows weight loss is a good first-line treatment in overweight and obese women.
The Miriam Hospital part of the study was led by Rena R. Wing, director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center and a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
For more information on the study, go to www.clinicaltrials.gov/ and type NCT00091988 in the search window.
