Thanks to global advancements in healthcare and standards of living, people are living longer than ever before. In 2015, there were 599 million people over 65 years globally and it is expected that in 2020, the number of senior people will be 712 million. And who knows where the growth stops.

The aging of the population itself creates new needs but what is revolutionary is the fact that senior people are ever more active. This increases the demand for products that might not be considered everyday goods today. Absorbent incontinence products, such as panty liners, disposable underwear and adult diapers, are good examples of products like that. Their growing popularity will, in the course of time, shift the balance in the hygiene market from diapers and feminine hygiene products towards incontinence products.

Men and Women of All Ages Suffer from Incontinence.

But what is incontinence? It refers to both urinary incontinence and bowel incontinence and can be further divided into several subtypes: Urge, stress, overflow and functional incontinence, all of which have different causes. Men and women of all ages, from children to seniors, suffer from incontinence and as the awareness of this discomfort is increasing, using incontinence products is becoming more and more socially acceptable.

Incontinence products are by no means common consumer products yet, which is quite evident when you compare them to, for example, baby diapers or sanitary napkins. This is the case even in North America and Europe, where the market penetration of incontinence products is still quite low.