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Help-seeking behavior for nonsevere stress urinary incontinence among elderly women in communities, Beijing, China

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Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common health problem and influences women’s quality of life significantly. In order to enhance health education according to a specific situation, it is essential to identify barriers to seeking help among elderly women with nonsevere SUI. The objectives were to investigate reasons for (not) seeking help for nonsevere SUI among women aged ≥60 years, and to analyze factors affecting help-seeking behavior.

Methods

We enrolled 368 women aged ≥60 years with nonsevere SUI from communities. They were asked to filled out sociodemographic information, International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-SF), Incontinence Quality of Life (I-QOL), and self-constructed questiones on help-seeking behavior. Mann–Whitney U tests were used to analyze the different factors between seeking group and nonseeking group.

Results

Only 28 women (7.61%) had ever sought help from health professionals for SUI. The most frequent reason for seeking help was urine-soaked clothes (67.86%, 19 out of 28). The most frequent reason for not seeking help was that women thought it was normal (67.35%, 229 out of 340). Compared with the nonseeking group, the seeking group had higher total ICIQ-SF scores and lower total I-QOL scores.

Conclusion

Among elderly women with nonsevere SUI, the rate of seeking help was low. Lack of correct perception about the SUI kept women from doctor visits. Women who were bothered by more severe SUI and lower quality of life were more likely to seek help.

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Funding

This study is supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (grant number: 2018YFC2002204).

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Author notes

  1. Di Zhang and Xiaohui Sun contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11, Xi-Zhi-Men South Street, Xi Cheng District, Beijing, 100044, China

    Di Zhang, Xiaohui Sun, Hongmei Zhu, Xiuli Sun & Jianliu Wang

  2. The Key Laboratory of Female Pelvic Floor Disorders, Beijing, China

    Di Zhang, Xiaohui Sun, Hongmei Zhu, Xiuli Sun & Jianliu Wang

  3. Research Center of Female Pelvic Floor Disorders of Peking University, Beijing, China

    Di Zhang, Xiaohui Sun, Hongmei Zhu, Xiuli Sun & Jianliu Wang

  4. Department of Sports medicine and rehabilitation, Beijing Sports University, No.48, Xin Xi Road, Hai Dian District, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hongmei Zhu

  5. Clinical Research Institute, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Haibo Wang

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  1. Di Zhang
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Contributions

Di Zhang: manuscript writing, data collection, data analysis; Xiaohui Sun: manuscript writing, data collection, data analysis; Hongmei Zhu: data collection; Haibo Wang: data analysis; Xiuli Sun: project development, manuscript editing; Jianliu Wang: project development.

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Correspondence to Xiuli Sun.

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Zhang, D., Sun, X., Zhu, H. et al. Help-seeking behavior for nonsevere stress urinary incontinence among elderly women in communities, Beijing, China. Int Urogynecol J 34, 2565–2572 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-023-05544-y

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