The purposes of this descriptive study were to identify the prevalence rate of urinary incontinence(UI) and the differences in frequency of incontinent and normal women by general characteristics, obstetrical history, and the conditional events for urinary incontinence of the elderly women in a community. By the results of this study, it is intended to provide nursing practice guidelines for incontinent women. The research design of this study was a preliminary descriptive study. The 173 subjects were 55 years old and over, and resided in a small city area.
Data were collected from June 20 to July 20, 2001, by an interview or a self-report with questionaire. The questionaire was composed of items of general characteristics, obstetrical characteristics, and conditions of UI by the modified Henderickon's Stress Incontinence Scale(1981).
The results were summariezed as follows:
The UI prevalence rate of the sample was 64.2%. Of the incontinent women, 31.5% had experienced UI for a period of three to five years, and 84.7% had never treated or managed their UI. Frequency of UI was once or twice times per month(46.8%).
The total mean of UI on the scale in the incontinent women was 25.50 of 85, ranging from 18 to 41.
The most frequent condition of UI was coughing, followed by laughing, sneezing, heavy exercise, and preparation of urination in descending order.
There were significant differences in age, education, social activity, and urinary difficulty between the incontinent women and the normal women.
There were significant differences in frequency of spontaneous abortion, age of menopause between the incontinent women and the normal women.
There were no significant differences in number of delivery, frequency of artificial abortion, age of the last delivery, and postal health management between the incontinent women and the normal women.
In conclusion, the incidence of UI in this study was high, but there were no effective treatments or management. It is suggested to provide the adult women with knowledge about UI, and to educate preventive behavior and control skill of urinary incontinence. Also episodes of urinary incontinence were high in the situation of sudden increase of abdominal pressure. This data can be used for the prevention strategy of urinary incontinence, In future research it is recommended to identify comprehensive factors related to urinary incontinence including psychosocial factors, and effective strategies of urinary incontinence.
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