Community-dwelling Black Women's Experiences With Urinary Incontinence: A Qualitative Study

We explored Black women's experiences, concerns, decisions, and challenges of seeking care for urinary incontinence (UI).

After screening for UI, we collected questionnaires confirming UI bother. We performed semistructured, one-on-one interviews via video or phone with adult participants who self-identify as Black women and had symptoms of UI. We asked about experiences with UI, perceived impact on quality of life, care-seeking behaviors, and any challenges to seeking care. Audio recordings were transcribed and coded. We then explored the patterns and relationships between codes to identify categories and themes.

We interviewed 24 Black women with UI, aged 19 to 73 years. All had some college education, and more than one-half had degrees ranging from associate to graduate. Five themes emerged: 1) UI symptoms bring up negative emotions and require adaptations; 2) normalization of UI decreases symptom reporting and care seeking; 3) participants' UI and other medical symptoms were often minimized or dismissed by clinicians; 4) participants desire routine UI screening by clinicians and enhanced UI education; and 5) participants encourage more diversity and higher quality care to improve patient trust.

In addition to embarrassment, Black women's challenges to seeking UI care include prior experiences of trauma within the health care system. Routine screening of patients, enhanced UI education, and provider trust building could improve Black women's experiences and willingness to seek UI care.