[Beneficial effect of exercise therapy in urinary incontinence in family practice depends largely on therapy compliance and motivation]

OBJECTIVE

Determining the factors which influence the success of training therapy in women suffering from urinary incontinence.

DESIGN

Descriptive.

SETTING

Thirteen general practices in Nijmegen and environs, the Netherlands.

METHOD

A total of 110 women between 20 and 65 years old, suffering from urinary incontinence were examined by their general practitioners. Age, personality, parity, psychological features and type, duration, severity, beginning of the disease, as well as the presence of cystocele or prolapse were recorded. Women were asked about their own experiences regarding factors that influenced success. The treatment consisted of training of pelvic muscles in stress incontinence and bladder training in urge incontinence. Outcomes and compliance were measured 3 and 12 months after start of treatment by means of a so-called incontinence diary.

RESULTS

After 3 months the mean frequency of urine loss per week diminished from 21 to 8, and after 12 months to 6 times. Compliance was the most important contribution to success. Patients were more motivated to practise when the subjective burden of the urine loss was more severe. Other features did not influence success.

Anatomical urinary stress incontinence in women with rheumatoid arthritis: its frequency and coping strategies

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this study were to develop a valid screening tool for anatomical urinary stress incontinence (AUSI), to use it to determine the frequency of AUSI in women with RA, and to identify the cognitive, behavioral, and psychological coping strategies used by these women to deal with incontinence.

METHODS

A screening tool concerning AUSI was validated by comparing self-reported incidences of AUSI with clinical evaluation. Questionnaires regarding presence of AUSI and cognitive, behavioral, and psychological coping strategies were sent to 750 women clinically diagnosed with RA.

RESULTS

Of the 262 respondents (35% response rate), 21% had characteristics of AUSI, a rate similar to general population studies. Coping strategies varied depending on whether the women were at home or away from home and whether the women were alone or with others.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for women with incontinence and the health care workers who serve them to be educated about AUSI and its treatments.

The urethral plug II: an alternative treatment in women with genuine urinary stress incontinence

An improved design of the recently developed urethral plug was evaluated for the treatment of women with genuine urinary stress incontinence. The plug consists of an oval meatal plate, a soft stalk and 1 or 2 spheres along the stalk with fixed distances between the meatal plate and the spheres. Inside the stalk is a removable semi-rigid guide pin to ease insertion. Forty women were randomly allocated to treatment with either the 2-sphere or the 1-sphere plug during period 1 (2 weeks). In period 2 (2 weeks) the patients used the other plug. They then continued with what they judged to be the better plug in period 3 (2 months). Eighteen patients (45%) completed period 3 with the "preference" plug and 17 were subjectively and objectively continent or improved. Fourteen of these women preferred the 2-sphere device. The plugs were equally effective in patients with mild or severe incontinence. To accommodate variations in urethral length and to avoid the loss of plugs, the devices are available in different lengths. Six women developed urinary tract infections and 2 of these had a plug in the bladder. The urethral plug is an effective treatment in a group of women with stress incontinence. Removal by hand is advisable in order to avoid retention of plugs in the bladder.

The influence of urinary incontinence on the quality of life of elderly women

The quality of life assessed by the Nottingham Health Profile Questionnaire was compared in a group of women (n = 120) suffering from urinary incontinence (age 75.4 +/- 1.9, range 65-84 years) and an age-matched representative sample of the total population (n = 313). There were no significant differences between the two groups of women in occurrence of other illnesses or social characteristics. Women suffering from urinary incontinence obtained higher scores in the domains of emotional disturbances (p < 0.05) and social isolation (p < 0.001) than women from the control group. When subdividing the incontinent women by type of incontinence it was found that women suffering from urge and mixed incontinence reported emotional disturbances (p < 0.05) more than women from the control group. There was, however, no difference within the domain of emotional disturbances between stress-incontinent women and the control group. Women suffering from urge incontinence reported more disturbance of sleep (p < 0.05) than the control group. Women suffering from all types of urinary incontinence (p < 0.05) were socially more isolated than those from the age-matched group of women from the total population. Urinary incontinence in women has a detrimental effect on their daily lives and causes them to avoid social contacts.

Psychological aspects of female urinary incontinence in general practice

The aim of this study was to determine whether urge incontinence was associated with a higher prevalence of psychological symptoms than other types of incontinence. The psychological aspects of 110 women presenting with urinary incontinence in general practice were assessed by means of standardised questionnaires and medical history-taking. The results showed no difference in psychological characteristics between patients with urge incontinence and those with other types of incontinence. These findings were contrary to the conclusions of almost all other studies based on populations selected for specialist care. It was concluded that in general practice the psychological approach to urinary incontinence depends more on the individual needs of the patient than specifically on the type of incontinence.

Prevalence, incidence and correlates of urinary incontinence in healthy, middle-aged women

The prevalence, incidence and correlates of urinary incontinence were studied in a community-based sample of 541 healthy, middle-aged women 42 to 50 years old. Participants were evaluated on 2 occasions approximately 3 years apart. Of the participants 58% reported urine loss at some time and 30.7% reported incontinence on a regular basis at least once per month. During 3 years the cumulative incidence of regular incontinence in previously continent women was 8.0%. Among those with regular incontinence 64.9% said the volume of loss was 1 or 2 drops, while 35.1% reported that they needed to change their garments. Only 25.5% of the patients had sought treatment. Continence status was significantly related to body mass index and race but not to patient age, parity, caffeine or alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity, prior gynecological surgery or several psychological variables. The results indicate that urinary incontinence is common among middle-aged women. That few seek treatment suggests a need for more information about women's attitudes toward incontinence and more attention to this problem by health care providers.

Vaginal diaphragm rings in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence

To assess the effectiveness of wearing vaginal diaphragm rings in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence, 10 women with genuine stress incontinence were studied. Patients underwent urodynamic evaluation and perineal pad testing before and after fitted diaphragm rings were in place. Patients kept symptom diaries for 1 week without the ring and then for 1 week with the ring. They also gave an overall subjective evaluation of their experience. Urodynamic findings were essentially unchanged by wearing diaphragm rings. Trends toward improvement were observed in the results of pad tests and symptom diaries. Four of the 10 women experienced clinically significant improvement in amount of urine lost during pad tests, number of leaks per week, and overall assessment of response. Vaginal diaphragm rings may be an effective treatment for some women with stress urinary incontinence.

Psychosexual study of women with detrusor instability

Clinical impression suggests that many cases of detrusor instability are psychosomatic. We evaluated 63 women with urinary incontinence and 27 continent controls using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Uplift and Hassle Scales, and a structured questionnaire screening sexual dysfunction. All incontinent women underwent diagnostic urodynamic studies including uroflowmetry, subtracted water cystometry with provocation, and urethral closure pressure profilometry. Thirty-five women had genuine stress incontinence and 28 had detrusor instability, including nine with mixed incontinence. No differences in psychological test results were noted between the detrusor-instability and genuine-stress-incontinence groups. On the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, subjects with detrusor instability scored significantly higher than controls on the hypochondriasis (P = .006), depression (P = .01), and hysteria (P = .0009) scales. Compared with continent controls, the detrusor-instability group reported a lower frequency of uplifts (P less than .05) and a greater intensity of hassles (P less than .05). Both incontinent groups reported more sexual dysfunction than did controls. We conclude that many women with urinary incontinence have abnormal psychological and sexual test results reflecting moodiness, feelings of helplessness and sadness, pessimism, general hypochondriasis/somatization, and sexual dysfunction. These abnormalities appear to be associated with urinary incontinence in general rather than with specific diseases of the urinary tract.

Prevalence and outcome of surgery for female incontinence

A 4.7 percent surgery rate to correct urine loss conditions was found by a large scale survey of sixty-year and older non-institutionalized women in a Michigan county. The initial postoperative results reported by the respondents were 74 percent complete continence and 23 percent partial relief. The long-term self-reported outcomes (two years or more post-surgery) were an absolute continence rate of 39 percent and 17 percent with mild incontinence (the median time since surgery was 12 years), whereas the short term (4-23 months, mean 7.1 months) absolute continence rate was 71 percent. The characteristics of the incontinence respondent who had previous surgery showed 70 percent having mixed stress-urge type of incontinence and 66 percent losing urine almost weekly or daily. Bladder emptying symptoms were reported by 30.4 percent of the continent previously-operated respondents compared with 13.0 percent of the incontinent previously-operated respondents. All continent respondents and 84 percent of the incontinent respondents believed that physicians can help people with a urine loss condition.

The ISQ-P tool: measuring stress associated with incontinence

1. ISQ-P is a useful tool in measuring psychological stress associated with urinary incontinence. 2. ISQ-P can be used in conjunction with bladder training programs. 3. Patients with urinary incontinence show depressive symptoms, have somatic concerns regarding urinary incontinence, and exhibit a feeling of shame.

The prevalence of female urinary incontinence and reasons for not seeking treatment

The prevalence of urinary incontinence in women aged 18 years and over was investigated by carrying out a telephone interview of 851 women randomly selected from the Dunedin electoral register. Two hundred and sixty seven (31%) of the women interviewed had some degree of incontinence in the preceding 12 months and 142 (17%) had had regular incontinence (two or more episodes of leakage per month). Daily incontinence occurred in approximately 5% of the women sampled with 2.3% being incontinent more than once per day or being continually incontinent. Only one third of those with regular incontinence had sought medical help for their problem. The commonest reasons for this were that either the incontinence was not seen as abnormal (81%) or there was a low expectation of benefit from treatment (10%). Thus there needs to be improved awareness that incontinence is treatable and that medical and surgical treatment options are available.

Micturition and the mind: psychological factors in the aetiology and treatment of urinary symptoms in women

The mental state of 211 women attending a urodynamic clinic was assessed using questionnaires. Patients with genuine stress incontinence had scores comparable with other patients with longstanding physical complaints. Patients with sensory urgency were more anxious than those with genuine stress incontinence. Patients with detrusor instability were as anxious as patients with sensory urgency and in addition had higher scores on the hysteria scale. A subset of patients (roughly a quarter of the total) was identified, comprising members of all three diagnostic groups, for whom urinary symptoms rendered life intolerable. These patients were as anxious, depressed, and phobic as psychiatric inpatients, emphasising the serious psychological morbidity experienced by patients with urinary symptoms. Fifty patients with detrusor instability or sensory urgency entered a randomised trial comparing psychotherapy, bladder drill, and propantheline. The psychotherapy group significantly improved on measures of urgency, incontinence, and nocturia, though not on frequency. Bladder training was an effective treatment for frequency and patients became less anxious and depressed. There was a modest improvement in frequency of micturition in patients given propantheline. Frequency may be a learnt disorder which responds to the direct symptom oriented approach of bladder training. Patients with urgency and nocturia predominating might derive more benefit from psychotherapy.

Mental factors influencing recurrence of stress incontinence

At a recent follow-up of 51 women operated on for stress incontinence, there was an astonishingly high discrepancy between symptoms claimed by the patients and signs found by the physician. To examine the influence of certain mental factors on the recurrence of stress incontinence, the patients in the above-mentioned follow-up were tested with the Eysenck Personality Inventory test and the Sabbatsberg Depression Self-rating Scale test. The women with symptoms but no objective signs of stress incontinence showed a higher degree of both neuroticism and depression than the women of perfect health. Thus, in this group, it may be a question of aggravation of symptoms, which cannot be helped by a reoperation. Instead, these women might need psychiatric attention to relieve their psychosomatic symptoms.