Abstract Urinary incontinence consists of involuntary loss of urine, significantly impairing quality of life. It is the main pelvic floor disorder, classified into three types: stress, urgency and mixed. This research is relevant for the female gender, since the lack of security and confidence in your body can bring discomfort and embarrassment. The objective of this research was to measure the most frequent type of urinary incontinence and to identify the impacts caused by urinary incontinence on quality of life. This study is a literature review with a descriptive approach. Through the keywords, the scientific databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO, PEDro and PubMed were searched for articles to compose this literary review. 55 articles were selected and according to the inclusion criteria, 11 articles constituted the analytical body of this review with a total sample of 1351 women and an average age of 53.11 years. The King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ), was the assessment instrument used to verify quality of life. The most frequent type of urinary incontinence was mixed. Among the nine domains, the second: “Impacts of Incontinence”, was a unanimous result, indicating that there are significant and relevant impacts on the quality of life with regard to the number of times of going to the bathroom, getting up during sleep to urinate, desire strong to urinate but difficult to control, involuntary loss of urine during physical activities, during sleep and during sexual intercourse, frequent urinary infections and bladder pain. Urinary incontinence has several impacts on quality of life regardless of type.

Incontinência urinária. Mulheres. Qualidade de vida