A Multisite Study on the Effect of a Urinary Incontinence Self-Management Program on Community-Dwelling Older Women in Korea.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a urinary incontinence (UI) self-management program on UI symptoms, knowledge, and self-efficacy in community-dwelling older women.

DESIGN

A 1-group pretest-posttest design.

SUBJECTS AND SETTING

Participants were recruited from 14 primary healthcare posts (PHCPs) in South Chungcheong Province, rural South Korea. A total of 163 women participated in a 5-session UI self-management program.

METHODS

The UI self-management program was sequentially conducted across 14 PHCPs between May and November 2016. In each PHCP, 6 to 22 women participated in the program. The program consisted of weekly 90-minute sessions that were conducted across 5 weeks. Each session included a lecture on UI, reflective discussion, pelvic floor muscle training, and the assignment of homework (exercises and a daily bladder diary). Main outcome variables were measured using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF), Urinary Incontinence Knowledge Scale (UIKS), and Geriatric Self-Efficacy Index for Urinary Incontinence (GSE-UI), which were administered before and after the intervention. Descriptive statistics were computed, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests analyzed the data.

RESULTS

The intervention resulted in a significant decrease in the ICIQ-SF scores, which was indicative of improvement in UI severity (pretest: 6.64 [SD 6.15], posttest: 4.76 [SD 5.08], P = .001), significant increases in the UIKS (pretest: 15.69 [SD 6.36], posttest: 23.14 [SD 5.54], P = .001] and GSE-UI (pretest: 75.34 [SD 31.80], [posttest: 86.20 [SD 27.06], P = .001) scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The UI self-management program improved UI symptoms, knowledge, and self-efficacy among community-dwelling older women.