Physical Activity, Diet, and Incident Urinary Incontinence in Postmenopausal Women: Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

Background Physical activity and macronutrient intake, important contributors to energy balance, may be independently associated with female urinary incontinence (UI). Methods We evaluated the association of baseline self-reported physical activity and macronutrient intake, via food-frequency questionnaire, with incident UI subtypes after 3 years among 19,741 post-menopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. Odds ratios (OR) for incident urgency, stress, and mixed UI were calculated using multivariable logistic regression. Results Women who reported total physical activity (MET-hours/week) ≥30 vs 0.05 for all). Conclusions Among post-menopausal women, higher physical activity was associated with lower risk of incident urgency and mixed UI, but not stress UI, independent of baseline weight and weight change. Higher protein intake was associated with increase urgency UI, but no associations were observed between other macronutrient and UI subtypes.