Selected determinants of quality of life in women with urinary incontinence

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI) is one of the most common diseases in women. It involves uncontrolled leaking of urine through the urethra. UI incidence depends on age and in certain age groups it can affect up to 60% of the female population. The symptoms can be persistent and due to their embarrassing nature they can lead to significant deterioration of quality of life and psychological functioning. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the quality of life and selected aspects of functioning. Seventy female outpatients of a public clinic in Nałęczów, Poland, were examined, and the following methods were used: the Urinary Incontinence Life Quality Scale (Szymona-Pałkowska, Kraczkowski), Disease-Related Appraisal Scale (Janowski, Steuden), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Endler, Parker), Disease-Related Social Support Scale (Brachowicz, Janowski, Sadowska), and the Knowledge Appraisal Scale for Urinary Incontinence (Szymona-Pałkowska, Kraczkowski). The obtained results suggest that the strongest predictors for the quality of life with UI would be: perception of the disease as an injustice and a challenge (a reverse relationship) and an avoidance-oriented style of coping with stress through companionship seeking (a positive relationship). The duration of the disease and the level of related knowledge proved to be crucial in the analysis of one dimension, i.e. distance to the symptoms.

Psychometric validation of the Chinese version of the Illness Perception Questionnaire–Revised for women with stress urinary incontinence

“…Patients with inappropriate illness perceptions usually feel embarrassed if symptoms are sub‐typical because most of them believe that they should seek care only if they have severe pain or symptoms . Furthermore, negative illness perceptions about SUI are able to significantly influence patients' health‐related QOL, and perceiving SUI as an injustice and a challenge was associated with a worse QOL and lower psychological, physical, and social well‐being . According to Leventhal's Self‐Regulatory Model, illness perceptions are considered to affect and be affected by coping strategies and this bidirectional process is considered to be an important pathway in explaining patients' adjustment to illness.…”

“…10,11 Furthermore, negative illness perceptions about SUI are able to significantly influence patients' health-related QOL, and perceiving SUI as an injustice and a challenge was associated with a worse QOL and lower psychological, physical, and social well-being. 12 According to Leventhal's Self-Regulatory Model, illness perceptions are considered to affect and be affected by coping strategies and this bidirectional process is considered to be an important pathway in explaining patients' adjustment to illness. This model could influence people's disease-preventive behaviors and their ways of interpreting and coping with such diseases when they occur.…”

Knowledge of the Disease, Perceived Social Support, and Cognitive Appraisals in Women with Urinary Incontinence

“…This finding emphasizes the favourable role of social support in adaptation to the disease in patients with UI. Positive disease-related appraisals have been linked to better adaptational outcomes, such as higher quality of life, lower depressive symptoms, or higher acceptance of life with disease, in previous research carried out among patients with UI [36], low back pain [37], and psoriasis [38]. Additionally, the findings from this study demonstrating the links between social support and positive disease-related appraisals provide arguments for the hypothesis that social support operates by inducing the patients' positive (salutogenic) resources rather than reducing negative (pathogenic) factors.…”

“…The respondents are requested to judge whether a given statement is true (true, do not know, and false). The possible scores range between 0 and 25, with higher scores denoting higher levels of knowledge [24, 25]. …”

Coping with stress and quality of life in women with stress urinary incontinence

“…The mean age was 53.4. The following methods were used: (a) Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) [ 19 ] to assess coping styles, (b) CASP-19 measure [ 20 ] to measure the overall quality of life, and (c) Urinary Incontinence Life Quality Scale [ 21 ].…”