Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities and Self-Reported Work Productivity in Urinary Incontinence Females Using the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Data

Objective To explore the relationship between racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities and self-reported work productivity in urinary incontinence females. Methods This was a retrospective observational and secondary analysis of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases database trials. We included females with stress urinary incontinence and ≥21 years old. The primary outcome was self-reported work productivity evaluated using a proportional-odds regression model. A backward elimination method was utilized to create a final reduced model. The socioeconomic predictors were age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, personal income, and language. Results We included 1252 participants with a median age of 52 years old. Whites accounted for 76.2% of total participants, while Hispanics constituted 11.4% only. Work productivity of Hispanic or non-Hispanic other group was greatly affected compared to Whites (OR: 1.771, P value: .0008 and OR: 1.592, P value=.0231, respectively). Work productivity of patients with higher education was less affected compared to less educated patients. Married females were less likely to report being greatly affected in work productivity than nonmarried females (OR 0.663, P-value .0005). Age, income, and language were not predictive of the outcome variable in the final model. Conclusion Our finding showed that racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities play an important role in individuals’ work productivity. Future research is needed to the influence of social determinants of health not captured by racial and socioeconomic factors.