Usage results of a mobile app for managing urinary incontinence.
PURPOSE
Slight changes in urinary incontinence severity may be difficult to notice, so that even high functioning patients are unable to detect if urinary incontinence is improving or worsening. We describe a recently released free software app, iDry®, that enables individuals with urinary incontinence to document incontinence symptoms, view progress, evaluate effectiveness of interventions and report status to their health care provider.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
After 2 field trials, iDry was published as a free download from the Apple® App Store and was downloaded 1,231 times in the first 19 months. iDry also collects large quantities of anonymized usage data for research purposes.


RESULTS
Data analysis shows that long-term users had significantly more severe urinary incontinence symptoms (p ≤ 0.01) than short-term users. Short-term users reduced pad use by 20% but long-term users' pad use remaining unchanged. Average leakage was reduced 14.6 mg per day for short-term vs 4.5 mg per day for long-term users, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.93) due to high data variability (SD 611). There was no significant difference between long-term and short-term users in severity of self-reported stress and urge incontinence. Bladder training positively correlated with a reduction in pad use (p=0.03) and leakage amount (p=0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
Overall our findings suggest that iDry is a useful, accessible and convenient tool to document urinary incontinence symptoms and improvement, but controlled studies are needed to assess its effectiveness.
['Pepper|Jeff|J|', 'Zhang|Amy|A|', 'Li|Rui|R|', 'Wang|Xiao Hui|XH|']
D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D063731:Mobile Applications D012720:Severity of Illness Index D014549:Urinary Incontinence
urinary incontinence software