Bladder bacterial diversity is different for women with urinary incontinence compared  with unaffected women, a study suggests.

US researchers compared bacteria in the urine of 50 women with stress urinary incontinence, 109 with urgency urinary incontinence and 150 controls, culturing bacteria from 70% of urine samples.

Four species of bacteria were found at significantly higher abundance in the urinary incontinence groups than the control group: Actinotignum schaalii, A. urinae, A. sanguinicola, and the Corynebacterium lipophile group of bacteria.

“We don’t know if it’s the chicken or the egg, but now that we know there’s a difference we can begin to do research to understand why … and whether that difference offers opportunities for new ways of treating patients or better ways of diagnosing or characterising the problem,” senior author, Professor Linda Brubaker, a urogynaecologist at the University of California, said.