Predictors of Care-Seeking Behavior for Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Women

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with care-seeking behaviors in women with urinary incontinence (UI).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study utilizing patient-reported survey data collected by the National Association for Continence (NAFC) from November 2018 to January 2019. Survey participants were recruited through the NAFC website, social media accounts and member email list. This survey was 60 questions and conducted using SurveyMonkey. Descriptive statistics were used for baseline characteristics, chi-squared test used for categorical variables and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine association care-seeking behavior.

Results: 485 women completed the survey during the study period. In this survey population, 30.7% of women had not sought care for their UI, while 69.3% had previously sought care. The majority of women were over the age of 55 years old, had UI for more than 4 years and had 2-3 children. Women who sought care for UI had more overactive bladder symptoms of urgency frequency, nocturia, and leakage with urgency on the way to the bathroom. There was no difference between reported stress UI symptoms in women who did and did not seek care (Table 1). Women who sought care were more likely to report emotions of anger, depression, hopelessness, isolation and they were more likely to describe social impacts of UI than the women who did not seek care (Table 1). The top reasons women who did not seek medical treatment for UI were other health concerns taking priority at the appointment (36.2%), they were too embarrassed (24.8%), and UI was normal part of getting older (18.8%). In the multivariate logistic regression monthly expenditure on incontinence products greater than $5 monthly, daily UI and UI for 4 years or more were associated with seeking care (Table 2).

Conclusions: The majority of women in our study population had sought care for UI. Women who sought care were more likely to report having urge UI symptoms. Factors associated with seeking care for UI were expenditure greater than $5 per month on incontinence products, daily UI. This information re-enforces the necessity of designing interventions to help screen women for incontinence and increase the number of women who get care for UI.