Narratives of women with long-term urinary incontinence

The purpose of this study was to examine the subjective, lived experience of women who suffer from long-term urinary incontinence and to show how a cultural model helps define that experience. Using an illness narrative approach and underlying theoretical frameworks from cognitive and critical medical anthropology, the specific aims of the study were to describe and analyze (1) what urinary incontinence means, and (2) how that meaning is constructed by women who live with long-term urinary incontinence. Seventeen community-dwelling women (ages 28–86) participated in in-depth interviews. Three dominant plot types were discovered in informant\u27s narratives: the Urinary Incontinence Quest Narrative, Urinary Incontinence Restitution and Redemption Narratives, and the Urinary Incontinence Victim Narrative. Three dominant themes evolved from interview data: Strategies for Living with Urinary Incontinence, Memories of Urinary Incontinence, and Responses to Urinary Incontinence . Four dominant themes were identified in media representations of female incontinence: Normalizing Urinary Incontinence , Fixing Urinary Incontinence, Stigmatizing Urinary Incontinence, and Avoiding Urinary Incontinence. Plot types, shared themes from narrative interviews, and influences from others were compared with themes that emerged from public representations of female incontinence, and a cultural model for long-term female urinary incontinence was developed. Findings suggest: (1) the meaning of long-term female urinary incontinence is constructed and negotiated as a result of individual and shared experiences, interactions with healthcare professionals, friends, and family members, and publicly available representations of female urinary incontinence, (2) the cultural model constructed by women differs significantly from the public model for female urinary incontinence, and (3) women\u27s narratives provide a method for accommodating similarities and differences between personal and public models for female urinary incontinence. Implications for clinical practice, education, and research are also included