London: Men who consume the most caffeine are more likely to suffer from incontinence as compared to those who drink the least, researchers say.

The new study suggests that caffeine may irritate the bladder, if not causing then exacerbating the problem, the Daily Mail reported.

For the study, senior author Dr. Alayne Markland`s team from the University of Alabama used responses from about 4,000 men to a national health survey between 2005 and 2008.

The researchers looked at how many had urinary incontinence and how much caffeine they ate or drank, as well as how much water they took in from both foods and drinks.

Overall, the men consumed an average of 169 milligrams of caffeine every day. The average cup of coffee contains around 125mg.

About 13 percent of the men reported leaky bladder, but only 4.5 percent had a problem considered moderate or severe – which is more than a few drops of urine leakage during the course of a month.

After adjusting for the men`s age and other risk factors, the researchers found that those who ate or drank 234mg of caffeine a day were 72 percent more likely to have moderate to severe urinary incontinence than those who consumed the least caffeine.

Men who downed more than 392mg of caffeine daily were more than twice as likely to be incontinent.

According to Dr Markland, it was not simply a matter of how much fluid a person took in because total water intake, in contrast, was not linked to a man`s risk of moderate to severe incontinence. This has led to the theory that caffeine irritates the bladder in some way.