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Urinary Incontinence Linked To Heart Disease Risk In Women

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 24, 2025.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 -- Women suffering from urinary incontinence might have a greater risk of heart disease, a new study says.

Women who struggle with bladder control are more likely to have risk factors associated with heart health problems, including type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, researchers reported in the Journal of Preventive Medicine.

They also are more likely to have suffered a stroke or needed heart bypass surgery, results show.

“There is an association between incontinence and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk,” concluded the research team led by Lisa VanWiel, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

“Women should be screened for incontinence regularly as it may contribute to CVD risk, and women with CVD risk factors should be screened for undiagnosed incontinence,” researchers added.

As many as 60% of women are affected by urinary incontinence, researchers said in background notes.

For the study, researchers tracked medical records of more than 20,000 women treated by the Hartford Healthcare system in Connecticut between July 2022 and June 2024.

Of those women, more than 5% reported urinary incontinence, researchers said.

Those with urinary incontinence were:

• 25% more likely to have type 2 diabetes.

• 37% more likely to have high cholesterol.

• 55% more likely to have suffered a stroke.

• More than three times as likely to have needed coronary artery bypass surgery.

Researchers speculate that incontinence might keep women from maintaining adequate levels of physical activity, thus affecting their risk factors for heart disease.

However, this study found no link between women’s physical activity levels and incontinence.

More study is needed to figure out why incontinence might have this effect on heart health risk factors, researchers said.

“Future studies should include measures of aerobic fitness, anxiety, and stress to better understand potential mechanisms in the association of incontinence and CVD risk so that interventions may be developed to help mitigate this risk and improve women’s cardiovascular health,” researchers wrote.

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted April 2025

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