Orange
Est. Contributor
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I've seen a lot of conflicting figures on the prevalence of incontinence and was wondering if anybody could shed some light on how prevalent it actually is. Personally, I'm not incontinent in the least. I had some problems with bedwetting but those ended when I hit puberty.
Here's some of the figures I'm talking about:
Depends says that 65 million people in the US suffer from urinary incontinence, which is about a fifth of the population. However wikipedia says that urinary incontinence only affects 24% percent of "older" adults in the US, as well as 5% of 10 year olds, 1% of 18 year olds. Other statistics say that incontinence affects anywhere from 1 in 50 to 1 in 75 teenagers. WebMD says that only 13 million adults suffer from urinary incontinence, which is only 5% of the population, but goes on to say that anywhere from 20-30% of young women, 30-40% of middle aged women and over half of older women suffer from incontinence, which contradicts their initial figures.
Add in to all that a story that circulated on a lot of financial news sites that youth and adult diaper sales are breaking records and project huge amounts of growth (>10% yearly sales growth) and that analysts project that the adult/youth diaper market capitalization will overtake the baby diaper market cap by the early 2020s.
So what's the deal with the figures being all over the map? Is incontinence becoming more common or just better diagnosed? Or are diapers just becoming a more commonly accepted way to deal with incontinence?
Though I can't really remember much about it before I was in third grade, my own bedwetting problem wasn't bad enough to warrant wearing diapers or pull-ups at home and I never went in to a doctor, it was enough just to wash my sheets when it happened. The only time I ever wore them past the age of 5 was when I spent the night at my daycare lady's house and at my Grandparents'. One theory I have is that perhaps minor incontinence like what I had is both more frequently referred to a doctor's office and more frequently managed by wearing diapers every night, as opposed to just occasionally, but I don't really have any evidence to back up that assertion.
What do you guys think?
Here's some of the figures I'm talking about:
Depends says that 65 million people in the US suffer from urinary incontinence, which is about a fifth of the population. However wikipedia says that urinary incontinence only affects 24% percent of "older" adults in the US, as well as 5% of 10 year olds, 1% of 18 year olds. Other statistics say that incontinence affects anywhere from 1 in 50 to 1 in 75 teenagers. WebMD says that only 13 million adults suffer from urinary incontinence, which is only 5% of the population, but goes on to say that anywhere from 20-30% of young women, 30-40% of middle aged women and over half of older women suffer from incontinence, which contradicts their initial figures.
Add in to all that a story that circulated on a lot of financial news sites that youth and adult diaper sales are breaking records and project huge amounts of growth (>10% yearly sales growth) and that analysts project that the adult/youth diaper market capitalization will overtake the baby diaper market cap by the early 2020s.
So what's the deal with the figures being all over the map? Is incontinence becoming more common or just better diagnosed? Or are diapers just becoming a more commonly accepted way to deal with incontinence?
Though I can't really remember much about it before I was in third grade, my own bedwetting problem wasn't bad enough to warrant wearing diapers or pull-ups at home and I never went in to a doctor, it was enough just to wash my sheets when it happened. The only time I ever wore them past the age of 5 was when I spent the night at my daycare lady's house and at my Grandparents'. One theory I have is that perhaps minor incontinence like what I had is both more frequently referred to a doctor's office and more frequently managed by wearing diapers every night, as opposed to just occasionally, but I don't really have any evidence to back up that assertion.
What do you guys think?