URINARY INCONTINENCE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMON SENSE PERCEPTIONS AND SELF-CARE BEHAVIORS IN RURAL COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER WOMEN.
Contributors: University of Pittsburgh.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 410
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Urinary incontinence, affecting an estimated 15% to 30% of community-dwelling older adults, is a major clinical problem and a significant cause of disability and dependency. Despite the availability of effective treatments, less than half of those with this problem are ever treated.

This study, an ancillary study to the Rural Health Promotion Project (RHPP), was designed to increase our understanding of older women's beliefs about urinary incontinence and how those beliefs influence their self-care management of the problem, including their treatment-seeking behavior. In-home interviews were conducted with a randomly selected sample of 147 female RHPP participants who had been identified as having urinary incontinence. The Urinary Incontinence: Perceptions and Self-Care Management questionnaire, developed by the investigator, was used to collect data on study variables. Test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was good to excellent with Kappas varying from 0.53 to 0.93.

Most of the women felt their incontinence had not improved over time and that it was permanent, but that it would not get any worse. Most did not anticipate any negative outcome from their incontinence. The causal perception reported most often was that incontinence was caused by getting older. Although 85.7% of the women knew about at least one accepted treatment for incontinence, many did not think the treatments were effective. There were a number of significant associations between beliefs about incontinence and the self-care responses participants used to manage this problem.

The most common emotional response to incontinence was resignation, reported by 77.6% of participants. Only 25.9% of the women reported any negative emotional response to being incontinent.

The most common source of incontinence information was television commercials for protective garments. Very few women learned about incontinence from health care providers.

The following variables were independently associated with treatment-seeking behavior: (a) usually responding to health problems by seeking medical care, (b) large volume accidents, (c) leaking without awareness, (d) frequent nocturia, (e) incontinence not improving, (f) the belief it was caused by work and/or surgery, (g) knowledge of treatment options, (h) dissatisfaction with restricting fluids as a self-management technique, and (i) difficulty self-managing incontinence.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-06, Section: B, page: 2993.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 1993.

School code: 0178.