A new study of incontinence in Australia has identified risk factors and burdens of incontinence in the older population.

The study authored by Professor John McCallum, is entitled: Risks and Burdens of Incontinence in an Older Community' and was released at the 16th National Conference on Incontinence.

Professor McCallum says: "Incontinence is responsible for about one-fifth of healthy years of life lost after the age of 75 and it is a terrible burden on the individual and the family."

"This is the same impact on healthy years lost as dementia and combined sight and hearing loss - so incontinence is a big issue and it does not receive the attention it deserves. There is a taboo about incontinence which we have removed in our discussions of dementia."

"Depression and disability are associated with incontinence but they don't predict it in the longitudinal study - so they are more consequences than the causes of the condition.".

Professor McCallum says: "It is high time that incontinence received as much attention as some of the other 'glamour' diseases of ageing. Both its prevalence and its burdens surely deserve this. We need to make serious sense of late life incontinence and do something about preventing it and reducing its impacts."