Analysis quality of life in woman with incontinence
Article published in Urologia Polska 2008/61/Supl. 1.

authors

Ewa Strupińska, Janusz Zajda

Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w Warszawie
Klinika Ginekologiczno-Urologiczna Conti-Medica w Warszawie

summary

Introduction.

The urinary incontinence is not perceived by the WHO representatives as a disease that is dangerous or health threatening, but because of its occurrence frequency in ageing population, it is recognized asone of the important health problems. Data collected from various sources indicate that the symptoms of urinary incontinence that are the signs of different diseaseentities should be considered as social disease because of the fact that they concern over 5% of population. First reports (1987) concerning the psychological,social and sexual aspects of patients with urological problems appeare dsimultaneously with the increased interest in health-related quality of life.

Objectives.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the quality of life of the women with urinary incontinence in Poland.

Materials and method.

The aim of the research was to define the quality of life of women with urinary incontinence according to the standardized questionnaire I-QOL. For the first time the questionnaire was usedin USAin 1996, where as in 2005 the 15 language versions were analyzed. The test groupconsisted of 238 women who were the patients of an urological clinic. The assessmentof the quality of life was one of the diagnostic elements of the therapy run in the clinic. The analysis of the resultswas done in the electronic programme Statistica, version 7.1.

Results.

The quality of life of women with urinary incontinence in Poland does not differ from the average quality of life of women suffering from thiskind of ailments in the other (selected) European countries. The perception ofthe disease is conditioned by the level of quality of life (number of points scored) and by the place of living.

Conclusions.

The perception of the disease is conditioned by the level of quality of life (number of points scored) and by the place of living. The results of the research also prove that there are differences between the quality of life of women with different types of urinary incontinence. The demographic, economic and cultural factors should be taken under consideration when comparing the Polish results with the scores from the other countries. The results of the research may be animportant contribution to the economic analysis of the disease and thepreventive activities as well.