A Study on Self-Esteem and Urinary Symptoms in Women with Urinary Incontinence

요실금환자의 골반근육운동에 따른 자아존중감과 배뇨증상에 관한 연구

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to help enhance the quality of life for women with urinary incontinence. Self-esteem, urinary symptoms, peak pressure and duration in seconds for vaginal contraction after pelvic muscles exercise were examined. Method: One-group pretest-posttest design was employed participants were 27 married women from G city. The instrument for this study were : the self-esteem scale developed by Rosenberg(1965). the Urinary Symptom Questionnaire, a subjective measurement of urinary incontinence, developed by Jackson et al.(1996) and the Perineometer used as an objective measurement of peak pressure and duration in seconds. Result: 1. Self-esteem showed significant improvement after the exercise (t=-3.832, p= .001). 2. Comparison of results before the pelvic muscles exercise and after showed that there was a statistically significant difference for several urinary symptoms including enuresis (t=2.833, p=.009), frequency of incontinence (t=2.964, p= .006), incontinence volume (t=2.280, p= .031), incontinence before getting to the restroom (t=3.035, p= .006), incontinence with no reason or feeling (t= 3.051, p= 005) burning sensation (t= 2.132, p=.043), and a sense of residual urine (t=2.267 p=.032). The mean scores showed improvement in the urinary symptoms of management of incontinence (M=$0.04{\pm}0.22$), daily frequency of incontinence management (M=$0.13{\pm}0.85$), urinary control (M=$0.15{\pm}0.86$), running to the restroom (M=$0.15{\pm}0.60$) incontinence caused by coughing or physical activities (M=$0.19{\pm}0.57$) and hesitancy (M=$0.07{\pm}0.55$). Overall urinary symptoms decreased significantly (t =3.073. p= .007). 3. Peak pressure showed an increase from a mean of $24.26{\pm}16.20mmHg$ before the exercise to a mean of $28.63{\pm} 17.79mmHg$ after (t=-2.399, p=.024). Duration in seconds also increased from a mean of $6.00{\pm}4.95sec$ to $9.15{\pm}5.83sec$ (t=-4.400, p= 000). Conclusion: These findings suggest that pelvic muscle exercise serves to decrease urinary problems, improve self-esteem and increase peak pressure and duration in seconds.