* Elderly people with obese urinary incontinence have higher levels of loneliness
* Elderly people with obese urinary incontinence have worse quality of life

This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of relational cross-sectional descriptive research. Research was carried out between December 2022 and February 2023 with elderly individuals living in a province in the North of the Black Sea and could be reached without probability. 301 elderly individuals who accepted to participate in the study, who did not have mental disabilities, who could be contacted and who could be reached, were included in the study. It was calculated that 276 elderly individuals would be included in the study with 95% sample strength, 5% margin of error and 80% sample strength. In the study, 301 elderly individuals were reached and the sample power was calculated as 100%. In the study, data were collected using a personal characteristics questionnaire prepared by the researcher, urinary incontinence questionnaire, Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (I-QOL) and  Loneliness Scale for the Elderly (LES). SPSS v25 program was used to evaluate the data. Before starting the research, XXX University Ethics Committee was consulted and ethical approval (2022/190-218) was obtained.

It was found that 34.6% of the elderly who participated in the study were obese, and 59.6% of the obese elderly people had urinary incontinence. It was concluded that there was a statistically significant difference between the urinary incontinence of the obese and non-obese elderly and their knowledge of kegel exercises and that the obese elderly had more urinary incontinence and knew more kegel exercises than the non-obese elderly. It was concluded that the obesity variable had a statistically significant effect on the variable of urinary incontinence, the obese elderly had lower incontinence quality of life(I-QOL) and felt more lonely than the non-obese elderly. It was found that a one-unit increase in the "Psychosocial Influence" sub-factor score of the I-QOL decreased the total score of the LEAS by 0.293 times; while a one-unit increase in the "Social Isolation" sub-factor score increased the total score of the GIAS 0.519 times. It was found that a one-unit increase in the "Psychosocial Influence" sub-factor score of the I-QOL decreased the total score of the Loneliness Scale for the Elderly (LES) by 0.293 times; while a one-unit increase in the "Social Isolation" sub-factor score increased the total score of the LES 0.519 times.

In this study, it was found that obese elderly people had more incontinence problems than non-obese ones. In addition, the loneliness levels and quality of life of obese elderly people with incontinence problems were more negatively affected.

Obesity is a common problem in the elderly. Older people who are obese are at higher risk of urinary incontinence than those who are not. This study showed that both obesity and incontinence cause social withdrawal and isolation in the elderly. Therefore, obesity, urinary incontinence, and loneliness in old age should be considered together.

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Farrés-Godayol, P., Jerez-Roig, J., Minobes-Molina, E., Yildirim, M., Molas-Tuneu, M., Escribà-Salvans, A., ... & Giné-Garriga, M. (2022). Urinary Incontinence and Its Association with Physical and Psycho-Cognitive Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in Older People Living in Nursing Homes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1500.

Continence 7S1 (2023) 101006
DOI: 10.1016/j.cont.2023.101006