Urinary incontinence restrictions in women's life

Abstract

Our purpose with this study was to verify the restriction of the urinary incontinence (UI) in a woman's daily life, considering the type of incontinence, and find out how women deal with that. It is a secondary analysis of data taken from a previous study that were obtained using open and closed questions. Interviews were held with 164 incontinent inpatients of gynecological and urological clinics of two hospital schools in the city of Campinas, in the State of São Paulo, with ages ranging from 25 to 85 years. Of this universe, 104 (64%) indicated one or more restrictions regarding their daily life activities, such as altered sexual (40.9%), social (33.5%), domestic (18.9%) and occupational activities (15.2%). Mixed urinary incon-tinence and urge incontinence were mentioned as that affected the most women's daily life. The disposable pad system was the most utilized strategy in dealing with UI. It was concluded that UI has a negative impact on the daily life of these women.