LIFE WITH FEMALE URINARY INCONTINENCE: ARE INTIMATE PARTNERS IN AGREEMENT?

Purpose:Presented is a preliminary comparative analysis of intimate partners’ perceptions of their relationship when the woman has urinary incontinence. Responses from midlife women (aged 45 – 65) who are living with urinary incontinence regarding their perceptions of the quality of their intimate relationship will be compared with the responses from their partners. The specific aims of this study are to explore: a) women and partner responses on measures of select relationship factors for congruence, and b) the woman and her partner’s expressed perceptions of the impact of midlife female urinary incontinence on the intimate relationship. Corbin and Strauss’ Collaborative Chronic Illness Trajectory Model (1984; 1988) was used to guide this inquiry.

Rationale:Female urinary incontinence is a significant source of morbidity for midlife U.S. women, with reported incidence rates ranging from 15 – 56.9%. Female urinary incontinence has been associated with lower levels of self-esteem, quality of life, emotional health, and sexual function. Corbin and Strauss’ Collaborative Chronic Illness Trajectory Model proposes that these psychosocial factors have the potential to significantly affect interpersonal relationships, including the intimate relationships of women and their partners. How partners jointly cope with the woman’s urinary incontinence symptom management and the impact of urinary incontinence symptom burden on the relationship are not well understood.

Methods:Through purposive convenience/snowball sampling, midlife women with urinary incontinence were recruited and offered the opportunity to invite their partners to participate. Participants completed questionnaires comprised of established, validated and reliable measures of the following relationship factors: relationship satisfaction, relational ethics (a sense of trustworthiness and fairness), sexual quality of life, and illness communication (regarding incontinence). Participants were also given the opportunity to respond to open-ended questions about their perceptions of incontinence symptom impact on the relationship and about coping strategies used by the couple as they live with chronic female urinary incontinence.

Results: Paired-sample t-tests will be used to test for congruence between women and their partners on these measures of relationship factors (n > 35 intact dyads, p < .05, two-tailed; per G-Power analysis, target sample size of 34 dyads results in adequate power [0.80] when α = 0.05 and effect size = 0.05). Also presented will be a preliminary content analysis of themes revealed in both the woman and her partner’s responses to open-ended questions about perceptions of coping as a couple with female urinary incontinence.

Implications: As a chronic condition, urinary incontinence potentially requires couples to engage in negotiation and ongoing relationship work in order to maintain the quality of the relationship. The nurse’s ability to provide support to women who seek care for urinary incontinence may be improved by an awareness of both women and their partners’ perspectives of symptom impact on the intimate relationship.