Barriers to urinary incontinence care seeking in white, black, and Latina women - Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We compared barriers to urinary incontinence (UI) healthcare seeking between white, black, and Latina women.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of white, black, and Latina women. Women completed the Barriers to Incontinence Care Seeking Questionnaire (BICS-Q), the Incontinence Quality of Life Instrument (I-QOL), the Questionnaire for Urinary Incontinence Diagnosis, and the Incontinence Severity Index (ISI). The primary objective was to assess barriers to UI care seeking among groups, as measured by the BICS-Q. Secondary objectives were to assess factors associated with barriers to incontinence care and to compare specific barriers using BICS-Q subscale scores. Regression analyses were used to further assess for differences among groups while adjusting for potential confounding variables.

RESULTS: We included a total of 93 subjects, including 30 white, 33 black, and 30 Latina women. Mean I-QOL, Questionnaire for Urinary Incontinence Diagnosis, and ISI scores were not significantly different among our 3 groups. Barriers, based on BICS-Q scores, were lowest in white women and higher in blacks and Latinas (2.9 vs 7.3 vs 10.9, respectively; P < 0.001). When adjusting for potential confounders such as age, income, education, presence of UI, ISI score, and I-QOL score, Latinas continued to demonstrate higher barriers compared with white or black women (β = 7.4; 95% CI, 2.2-12.7; P = 0.006). There were no significant differences between black women compared with other groups in the adjusted analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: Latinas experience more barriers to UI healthcare seeking compared with white and black women.

Written by:
Willis-Gray MG, Sandoval JS, Maynor J, Bosworth HB, Siddiqui NY.   Are you the author?
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University Medical Center; Center of Excellence for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and Departments of Medicine, Psychiatry, and School of Nursing, Duke University, Durham, NC.

Reference: Female Pelvic Med Reconstr Surg. 2014 Sep 2. Epub ahead of print.


PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25185610

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