Of all types of incontinence, the stress, urge and debility incontinence are most difficult to live with as they create lots of inconvenience in everyday life. Most of the time the cause of incontinence is beyond the victim’s control. Stress incontinence is due to muscle weakness and any sudden pressure in the abdomen causes a leakage of urine. In Urge incontinence, the leak occurs when the urinary bladder suddenly contracts. Clearly, the muscular behavior is neither predictable nor under one’s control. It is not that treatment isn’t available for these conditions. However, there are cases where all treatments are futile, and ordinary ones have not produced the desired results and the patient is not going for sophisticated ones for reasons of their own. Debility incontinence is often not effectively treatable and can only be managed. Even when treatments are instituted, they take time to really kick in’ and give effective relief. In all these cases the only recourse is to employ suitable physical means of absorbing the leaked urine in a medium with high absorbing capacities. One of the most convenient means is provided by adult diapers. These are made of wood pulp and synthetic polyacrylate sandwiched between dual layers of waterproof layers of polyethylene sheets.

Adult diapers are generally used in stress, urge or disability incontinence. There is always an intervening period for treatment to kick in’ and take effect. Diapers are the most common means to overcome the physical inconveniences in the interim period. Diapers are available in various sizes for babies, adults, and older people. The fastening mechanisms also vary to suit various user’s convenience. Today, diapers have evolved to suit special needs. For instance, with the advent of space exploration, astronauts have special requirements, especially during launch and re-entry times. There are many uses of adult diapers and some customized ones can be used for special purposes. For instance, astronauts use a combination of three Maximum Absorbency Garments’ or MAGs, each for lift-off and re-entry, and one spare. The spare is required because re-entry can be cancelled and rescheduled. The fabric is made of high capacity absorbent materials which can absorb liquid 400 times their weight. These maximum absorbency garments are also used during space walks and extracapsular activities. These are designed for 6 hours of extracapsular period. In the initial days, only women astronauts used these, while men used collection devices. However, looking at the comfort and efficiency of adult diapers, the tides turned with men also using them.