The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of urinary incontinence of community residing climacteric women, and to identify the relationship between urinary incontinence and quality of life. The subjects of this study were 156 women(45 to 59 years old). Data was collected from Sep. 1 to Dec. 1 2002 by an interview or self-reporting by a structured questionnaire.
The questionnaire was composed of items of general characteristics, urinary characteristics, and conditions of urinary incontinence, using the modified Henderickson´s stress incontinence scale(1981), and the quality of life scale developed by RO, You Ja(1988). The data was analyzed by the SPSS/WIN program using descriptive statistics,
Pearson correlation coefficients, t-test and AVOVA.
The results of the study were as follows :
1. The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 76.3%. Of the incontinent women, 42.0% had experienced urinary incontinence for a period of one to three years. Frequency of urinary incontinence was once or twice per day for 42.9% of the urinary incontinent women. Most of the participation with urinary incontinence(91.6%) had mild leakage of urine. In the whole urinary incontinent women, 70.6% had never treated or managed their urinary incontinence. Most of the subjects(79.8%) were mildly incontinent, and the prevalence of moderate and severe urinary incontinence was 20.2%. The mean scores among the items of urinary incontinence, in descending order, were increase of abdominal pressure(1.45 1.05), coughing(1.16 0.93), and sneezing(1.03 0.92).
2. The average score in the level in the quality of life variables was 3.12. The urinary incontinence and quality of life were correlated negatively(r=-0.103, p<0.001).
3. There were statistically significant differences in the score of climacteric woman´s self reported quality of life according to : amount of urinary incontinence(F=12.68, P=0.001), duration of urinary incontinence(F=6.97, P=0.009), number of urinary incontinence(F=4.77, P=0.03), existence of urinary incontinence(t=148, P=0.05).
In conclusion, this study was a preliminary study to provide nursing practice guidelines for climacteric woman with urinary incontinence. Nurses working with climacteric woman should develop and provide adequate care for the incontinent climacteric subjects. In future research, it is recommended to identify comprehensive factors related to urinary incontinence, including the effective management of urinary incontinence.
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