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BACKGROUND: urinary incontinence carries major social burden and considerable costs for health care systems. OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to investigate changes in continence status among a large cohort of older women, and to identify factors associated with incidence of incontinence in later life. SUBJECTS: participants of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (ALSWH), aged 70-75 years in 1996 and who have completed four health surveys over the past 10 years. METHODS: continence status across four survey periods, spanning 9 years, were defined according to women's reports of 'leaking urine' at each survey. Generalised estimating equation (GEE) models were used in longitudinal analyses of the factors associated with changing continence status over time. RESULTS: this study presents longitudinal data on the prevalence and incidence of incontinence from a large cohort of older women, over 9 years of follow-up. Over this time, 14.6% (95% CI 13.9-15.3) of the women in the study who had previously reported leaking urine 'rarely' or 'never' developed incontinence, and 27.2% (95% CI 26.2%, 28.3%) of women participating in Survey 4 (S4) in 2005 reported leaking urine 'sometimes' or 'often' at that survey, with women being twice as likely to report incontinence at S4 as they were 6 years earlier. Longitudinal models demonstrated the association between incontinence and dementia (P < 0.001; OR = 2.34; 95% CI 1.64, 3.34), dissatisfaction with physical ability (P < 0.001; OR = 1.70; 95% CI 1.52, 1.89), falls to the ground (P

Background If public health research does not progress beyond descriptive research to testing the effectiveness of interventions that can provide causal data, its contribution to evidence-based practice will not be realized. This paper examined the number and percentage of public health research publications over three time periods (1987–1988, 1997–1998, 2005–2006) for three preventive health issues: tobacco use, alcohol use, and inadequate physical activity. Methods A computer-based literature search was conducted, using the Medline and PsycINFO databases. A random sample of 1000 abstracts for each preventive health issue was examined per time period. The abstracts were first categorized as public health or not, and then as data-based or non–data-based public health research. Data-based publications were classified according to research type as measurement-, descriptive/epidemiologic-, or intervention-oriented. Data analysis occurred in 2007. Results The number of data-based public health research publications examined for each topic ranged between 180 and 346 in 1987–1988, 199 and 322 in 1997–1998, and 302 and 364 in 2005–2006. Despite a significant increase over time in the percentage of intervention publications for tobacco (from 10% in 1987–1988 to 18% in 2005–2006, p =0.008), the majority of publications in all three time periods were descriptive/epidemiologic for all topics (62%–87% in 1987–1988, 64%–85% in 1997–1998, 78%–79% in 2005–2006). There were fewer measurement (3%–7% in 1987–1988, 2%–6% in 1997–1998, 4%–10% in 2005–2006) or intervention publications (9%–31% in 1987–1988, 10%–30% in 1997–1998, 12%–18% in 2005–2006). Conclusions Descriptive research does not provide optimal evidence for how to reduce preventable illness. Reasons for the lack of measurement and intervention public health research are explored.

If public health research does not progress beyond descriptive research to testing the effectiveness of interventions that can provide causal data, its contribution to evidence-based practice will not be realized. This paper examined the number and percentage of public health research publications over three time periods (1987-1988, 1997-1998, 2005-2006) for three preventive health issues: tobacco use, alcohol use, and inadequate physical activity.A computer-based literature search was conducted, using the Medline and PsycINFO databases. A random sample of 1000 abstracts for each preventive health issue was examined per time period. The abstracts were first categorized as public health or not, and then as data-based or non-data-based public health research. Data-based publications were classified according to research type as measurement-, descriptive/epidemiologic-, or intervention-oriented. Data analysis occurred in 2007.The number of data-based public health research publications examined for each topic ranged between 180 and 346 in 1987-1988, 199 and 322 in 1997-1998, and 302 and 364 in 2005-2006. Despite a significant increase over time in the percentage of intervention publications for tobacco (from 10% in 1987-1988 to 18% in 2005-2006, p=0.008), the majority of publications in all three time periods were descriptive/epidemiologic for all topics (62%-87% in 1987-1988, 64%-85% in 1997-1998, 78%-79% in 2005-2006). There were fewer measurement (3%-7% in 1987-1988, 2%-6% in 1997-1998, 4%-10% in 2005-2006) or intervention publications (9%-31% in 1987-1988, 10%-30% in 1997-1998, 12%-18% in 2005-2006).Descriptive research does not provide optimal evidence for how to reduce preventable illness. Reasons for the lack of measurement and intervention public health research are explored.