Race/ethnicity differences exist in self-reported urinary incontinence. While self-reported urinary incontinence is prevalent in United States community dwelling women regardless of racial background, the odds of pure stress incontinence are at least 2.5-fold higher in white and Mexican-American women than in black women.

Objective To evaluate the role of mental imagery (MI) in resident training for a complex surgical procedure.Design Randomised controlled trial.Setting Eight centres across Canada and the USA.Population Junior gynaecology residents who had performed fewer than five vaginal hysterectomies (VH).Methods After performing a pretest VH, junior gynaecology residents were randomised to standard MI versus textbook reading (No MI) and then performed a test VH. Surgeons blinded to group evaluated resident performance on the pretest and test VH via global rating scales (GRS), procedure-specific scales and intraoperative parameters. Residents evaluated their own performance.Main outcome measure Change in surgeon GRS score from pretest to test VH. The study was powered to detect a 20% difference in score change. Conclusions No difference was observed in the surgical performance of residents after MI. Improved resident selfconfidence may be attributable to MI or the effect of unblinding on trial participants.

The purpose of the study was to compare incontinence bother in women with mixed incontinence versus pure incontinence subtypes. This is an institutional review board-approved study comparing physical exam findings and responses to the Medical Epidemiologic and Social Aspects of Aging (MESA) questionnaire and the Urinary Distress Inventory (UDI-6). The MESA responses were used to classify women as mixed, pure stress, or pure urge incontinence. This analysis includes 551 women with a mean age of 56 +/- 16 years. Most women were Caucasian (86%) with 7% African American and 5% Hispanic. UDI scores were significantly higher in women with mixed incontinence (61 +/- 23) than those with pure stress incontinence (40 +/- 26) or pure urge incontinence (40 +/- 25; p < 0.0001). Women with mixed incontinence report greater incontinence bother than women with either pure stress or urge incontinence.