Urinary incontinence handicap inventory.

Urinary incontinence is a common symptom encountered in the elderly. To measure the handicaps associated with urinary incontinence due to detrusor instability an instrument consisting of 17 questions (Urinary Incontinence Handicap Inventory (UIHI)) was developed and validated in thirty elderly women. The results show that the instrument has a high Cronbach alpha coefficient (0.87) and high test-to-retest reliability (0.99, P < 0.0001). The total score on the UIHI correlates significantly with the results on the visual analogue scales representing perception of distress felt by the individual (r = 0.91, P < 0.0001) and the severity of the symptom r = 0.78, P < 0.0001).