Adult incontinence is a far more common condition than many people realise, but urinary incontinence is also a problem that affects many children.

Researchers at the University of Sydney and the School of Public Health in Westmead, Australia, studied a group of children with urinary incontinence, aged six to 16 years, in order to determine factors that affected their quality of life.

A total of 146 children were asked to participate in the study and the vast majority (138) agreed to do so.

They completed questionnaires on their experiences of urinary incontinence and certain personal characteristics, such as their age, sex and ethnic background.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Urology, the study authors revealed that girls who relied on incontinence supplies tended to have a lower quality of life than boys.

Children who were not Caucasian also tended to have a worse quality of life than white children with incontinence.

Older age was also linked with decreased quality of life, but symptom severity was not.

The study authors concluded: "Older age, female gender and non-white ethnicity are associated with a lower disease-specific quality of life in children with urinary incontinence.

"Clinicians need to be aware of the differential effect of urinary incontinence in children of different ages and ethnic backgrounds."