Lessons learned: impact of a continence promotion activity for older community-dwelling women

Few studies have documented the effectiveness of continence promotion programs targeting older incontinent women. We sought to evaluate the impact of an interactive continence workshop on changing participants' attitudes, knowledge and skills in relation to self-managing or seeking care for incontinence.

A quasi-experimental prospective cohort study with repeated measures was carried out on a population of 90 incontinent women aged 55-87 participating in a continence promotion workshop. Inclusion criteria were a weekly average of one or more episodes of involuntary urine loss during the preceding 3 months and having never sought help for this problem. Incontinence-related knowledge, attitudes, skills and intentions for seeking care were assessed immediately prior and subsequent to the workshop. Three- and 6-month telephone follow-ups were conducted to determine rates of healthcare seeking and reasons for not seeking care.

Improvements in incontinence-related knowledge and attitudes occurred in up to 94% participants. Forty-three percent of the study participants initiated and were satisfied with self-treatment, and an additional 42% consulted a health care professional.

Interactive continence workshops promote self-management and consultation seeking among older women with incontinence. Further testing of different strategies for promoting continence awareness needs to occur in larger studies with more sensitive instruments, a control group, and better specification of the goals, process and outcomes of the health promotion activity being tested.