A Study on Prevalence and its Relating Factors of Urinary Incontinence in Women

Kim, Keum Soon; Suh, Moon Ja

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence of the urinary incontinence and it's relating actors in women. The target population is 327 community dwelling women in the age of 30-70 years old at 6 cities in Korea. The data were collected from August, 1996 to December. 1996 with interview using structured questionnaire composing of items of general characteristics, obstetric characteristics, disease characteristics, situation of experiencing urinary incontinence, discomfort due to urinary incontinence, and depression. The data were analysed with SPSS/PC+ program, T-test, x2 test, and ANOVA test. The results obtained from this study were as follows : 1) The prevalence of urinary incontinence in women is 37.7%(130/327). 2) The mean duration of experiencing the urinary incontinence was 75.9 months and the 60% of the respondents experienced a few frequency of urinary incontinence and the most common amount of urinary incontinence (91.5%) was somewhat small expressed as "wetting their clothes". 3) The common factors related to the urinary incontinence were coughing, sneezing, laughing a loudly and the activities of need for hurry. 4) The most common situations of discomforts associated with urinary incontinence were having long journey, exercise, playing, and social meeting. 5) The incidence of urinary incontinence was significantly higher in woman who had more children, older age of last delivery, more vaginal deliveries, and less c-section. 6) The incidence of urinary incontinence was not affected with the disease characteristics of the respondents, however it was higher when the women had the physical problems of constipation, abdominal laparatomy and episode of urinary catheterization than who had not. 7) The most common symptom of urinary incontinence was the frequent urine(43.1%), and the next was the urgent urine(12.3%), delayed urine(9.2%). 8) 90.7% of the episodic urinary incontinence were not treated at al, however, they wanted to try the herb medicine(41.5%), Kegel exercise(27.7%), and biofeedback(10.0%). 9) The level of Depression in the group of urinary incontinence was higher than that of non incontinence group significantly. In conclusion, as urinary incontinence in women proved severe health problem, health care providers need to develop and provide nursing intervention of urinary incontinence such as pelvic muscle exercise with biofeedback and psychological care.