Mediating Effect of Social Participation on the Relationship between Incontinence and Depressive Symptoms in Older Chinese Women

Training of Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Improves the Severity and Quality of Urine Incontinence and Increases Social Participation of Older Women in Southern Iran

BACKGROUND

Aging and gender are risk factors for urine incontinence, which can lead to psychological, physical, and social complications.

OBJECTIVE

This community-based study investigates the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle training on the severity and quality of urine incontinence and social participation of older women.

METHODS

This quasi-experimental community-based study was performed with the participation of 60 older women referring to the Public Health Center in Kerman City, southern Iran. The experiment group was trained with pelvic floor muscle training in 7 training sessions with distance health education in the second half of 2021. Before and after the intervention, data were collected based on: demographic, severity and quality of urine incontinence, and social participation inventories. Data were analyzed using a t-test and ANOVA (P ≤ 0.05).

RESULTS

The mean scores of severity and quality of urine incontinence and social participation in the experiment and control groups before receiving the intervention were not statistically significant (P ≥ 0.05). But after that, a statistically significant difference was observed between the groups (P <0.05), which showed an improvement in the severity and quality of urine incontinence scores as well as SP in the experiment group.

CONCLUSIONS

Tele-training of the Kegel exercise, even during the pandemic, can play an important role in improving incontinence and social participation in older women. Therefore, this training can be used to prevent and improve urine incontinence in public health centers in the community.

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Urinary Incontinence and Depressive Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Physical Activity and Social Engagement

OBJECTIVES

This study investigates longitudinal within-person associations between urinary incontinence (UI) and depressive symptoms among older women. Drawing on activity theory, this study also adds to limited knowledge about the mediating role of physical activity and social engagement in the association between UI and depressive symptoms.

METHODS

Using 6 waves of a nationally representative longitudinal study of older adults in Korea between 2008 and 2018, this study examined the relationship between UI and depressive symptoms among women aged 70 and older. Fixed effects models were estimated to account for unobserved time-invariant confounding factors. Sobel mediation tests were conducted to formally test for mediation.

RESULTS

Fixed effects estimates showed that, after adjusting for a wide array of time-varying covariates, having UI is positively associated with depressive symptoms among older women (b = 0.238, p < .05). Results revealed that individuals who begin to experience UI tend to have less frequent social interactions and participate in fewer social activities. UI, however, is only marginally associated with a decrease in physical activity. Reductions in physical activity, social connections, and social activities jointly explain about 22% of the association between UI and depressive symptoms, rendering it statistically insignificant.

DISCUSSION

UI poses a threat to psychological well-being among older women. This is partly explained by a decrease in physical activity and disruption in social engagement. This study reaffirms the significance of the programs that promote physical and social activity among older adults.

Willingness to engage in and current status of social participation among Chinese merchant sailors

China has the largest population of sailors in the world, but little is known of their social participation. This study examined Chinese merchant sailors' social participation using a nationwide survey. Across 12 Chinese provinces, 7,296 merchant sailors completed the questionnaire on sailor' willingness to engage in and status of social participation. The results showed that most Chinese merchant sailors were willing to participate in social affairs, but few of them reported having joined relevant social organizations, over half of sailors reported never having participated in public affairs, and half of them chose to ignore when they faced with an obvious mistake in shipping-related information in the media. Most of sailors reported unknowing the role of the labor union related to Chinese seafarers and NGO related to navigation well, and their evaluation of these organizations were mostly negative. Chinese merchant sailors reported higher expectations of services in terms of protection of rights, providing information and technology, and providing employment opportunity. We conclude that Chinese merchant sailors have willingness to social participation although the reality is not positive and discuss implications for improving the social participation of Chinese merchant sailors.

Extraversion personality, perceived health and activity participation among community-dwelling aging adults in Hong Kong

Activity participation is essential to the wellbeing of aging adults. Divergent levels of activity participation within aging populations have been explained from diverse perspectives, but the interaction effects of key determinants, such as personality and health, are often ignored. This study examines the effects of extravert personality on aging adults' activity levels by addressing its interaction with perceived physical health and mental health. A sample of 304 adults aged 50 and older was selected using systematic sampling from participants of an institute for promoting active aging at a university in Hong Kong in 2017. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, perceived physical and mental health, extraversion personality traits, and level of activity participation were collected using a telephone survey. Most participants (46.7%) reported moderate activity levels and over a quarter (26.6%) reported high or low activity levels. Multi-nominal logistic regression analyses show that extraversion was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting moderate (OR = 1.85, p = .036) but not high (p > .05) activity levels when adjusted for perceived physical and mental health and socio-demographics, with low activity levels being the constant comparison. Meanwhile, extraversion predicted both moderate (OR = 3.84, p = .014) and high (OR = 5.06, p = .032) activity levels for participants with poor or average perceived mental health. However, the interaction effects of extraversion with perceived physical health or mental health were not significant in predicting either moderate or high activity levels (p > .05). The implications for enhancing activity participation among aging adults are discussed in view of both personality and perceived health status.