Investigating the short- and long-term health outcomes after stroke is a public health priority.

We aimed to analyse the incidence of urinary and fecal incontinence within 10 years of stroke in individuals followed in general practice in Germany.

Individuals who had received an initial stroke diagnosis at one of 1262 general practices in Germany between January 2006 and December 2015 were included (index date). Individuals without stroke were matched (1:1) to those with stroke based on propensity scores by using a “greedy” algorithm and logistic regression with sex, age, index year, and 17 comorbidities diagnosed in the 12 months before the index date. The main outcome of the study was the incidence of urinary and fecal incontinence within 10 years of stroke.

This study analysed data for 16,181 individuals with stroke and 16,181 without stroke. Within 10 years of the index date, 22% and 11% of men with and without stroke received a diagnosis of urinary incontinence (log-rank P<0.001); the prevalence of urinary incontinence was 34% in female stroke survivors and 17% in females with no history of stroke (log-rank P<0.001). The respective proportions of fecal incontinence were 5% and 2% for men (log-rank P<0.001) and 6% and 3% for women (log-rank P<0.001). Overall, stroke was positively associated with both urinary incontinence (men: hazard ratio [HR] 2.34, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.10–2.61; women: HR 2.36, 95% CI 2.14–2.61) and fecal incontinence (men: HR 2.43, 95% CI 1.88–3.13; women: HR 2.60, 95% CI 1.98–3.41).

This study, using data from Germany, suggests that general practitioners should regularly screen for urinary and fecal incontinence in the decade following stroke.