Thirty-five percent of a sample of 100 elderly patients suffering from a degree of cognitive impairment were found to have urinary incontinence. They were significantly older, had lower memory and information scores and were more disorientated, hyperactive, aphasic, apraxic and socially incompetent than their continent counterparts. Their diagnosis was more likely to be a combination of senile and arteriosclerotic dementia (ICD-9); they suffered less often from concomitant functional psychiatric disease and showed a higher mortality rate (at 18 months’ follow-up) than the patients without incontinenc