Chinese women’s experience of stress incontinence: A descriptive qualitative study

Abstract

This study explored the perceptions of 35 Chinese women on the impact of stress urinary incontinence on their life and their adherence to pelvic floor muscle exercise program. Audiotaped interviews were conducted at a time and place convenient to them. Content analysis was used to extract significant categories that described their experience. The five major categories that emerged were: (i) perceptions of stress urinary incontinence; (ii) living with urinary incontinence; (iii) emotions and feelings; (iv) factors facilitating pelvic floor muscle exercise and (v) factors inhibiting pelvic floor muscle exercise program. The women who adhered and those who did not adhere to pelvic floor muscle exercised were similar in the two categories of living with urinary incontinence, and emotions and feelings. However, there were great differences between the perceptions of the two groups in three categories on perceptions of urinary incontinence, factors facilitating and inhibiting the performance of pelvic floor muscle exercise.