Incontinence affects health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with spina bifida

UI is negatively associated with HRQOL in children with SB in an age-dependent fashion: starting in 10 year olds and increasing until 14 years. FI correlates with lower HRQOL regardless of age. Similar to findings in adults with SB, HRQOL is lower with increasing amounts of UI and not the length of a dry interval. FI impacts HRQOL uniformly, regardless of frequency or amount.155Figure. Independent effects of urinary and fecal incontinence on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children, adolescents and adults with spina bifida. HRQOL was assessed by QUALAS Bowel and Bladder domain. Negative score differences signify lower HRQOL. Those without incontinence served as controls within each age group. Results for adults were obtained from 383 adults with spina bifid living in the United States enrolled in a separate, previously published international HRQOL study (Szymanski [13]).