Diabetes Prevention Reduces UI

Overweight women at risk for diabetescan prevent the disease and lower theirchance of urinary incontinence (UI) accordingto researchers.

For the 3-year trial, the researcherslooked at the effects of diet and exercise—compared with drug treatment with metforminonly or a placebo treatment—on UIrisk in 1957 obese women. The researchersfound that women in the intensivelifestyle group lost an average of 3.4kg, compared with1.5 kg in the metformingroup and a gain of 0.5 kg in the placebogroup. In the 3 groups, the percentages ofwomen who developed diabetes were14.9%, 23.9%, and 30.9%, respectively. Thepercentage of women with UI at end of thestudy was 38.3% in the intervention group,compared with 48.1% in the metformingroup and 45.7% in the placebo group.(The findings were reported in DiabetesCare, February 2006.)