This article describes short form versions of the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ) and the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI). These instruments assess life impact and symptom distress, respectively, of urinary incontinence and related conditions for women. All subsets regression analysis was used to find item subsets that best approximated scores of the long form versions. The approach succeeded in reducing the 30‐item IIQ and the 19‐item UDI to 7‐ and 6 item short forms, respectively. The short form versions may be more useful than the long form versions in many clinical and research applications. � 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.