Economic Burden of Urge Urinary Incontinence in the Workplace

Objective: Quantify incremental employee medical, pharmacy, sick leave, short- and long-term disability, and workers' compensation costs, absence days, and turnover associated with urge urinary incontinence (UUI) in employees. Methods: This retrospective 2001-2011 database comparison of employees with UUI versus those without UUI (controls) included employees aged 18.5 to 64.0 years at index, with 6-month preindex and 12-month postindex health plan enrollment. Logistic and generalized linear models measured postindex costs, absences, and turnover. Results: The study included 1448 employees with UUI and 337,796 controls. Employees with UUI had statistically significantly higher medical (131% higher), pharmacy (52%), sick leave (30%), and short-term disability (74%) costs and more sick leave (22%) and short-term disability (99%) days than controls (all P < 0.02). Conclusions: Employees with UUI had 117% greater medical and pharmacy costs, 47% greater total absence costs, and 63% more absence days than employees without UUI.