Patients' Perceptions of Stress Urinary Incontinence Treatment: A Scoping Review of Qualitative Studies

Treatment options for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) are often offered in a stepped-care approach. However, the shift towards patient-centred care and shared decision making (SDM) has prompted an increased interest in patients' perceptions of treatment decision making. This scoping review maps the available qualitative research on women's perceptions of the treatment decision-making process for SUI and identifies knowledge gaps.

This scoping review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis guidelines. Three databases were searched using a systematic search strategy, without restriction in publication date or language. After thorough screening, 19 of the initial 3,473 publications were included.

Four themes were identified; pre-existing experiences and notions that women bring to the consultations (things women consider before their consultation); treatment and patient characteristics (treatment aspects and personal values patients deem important); aspects of the consulting health care professional and facilities (availability of treatment options and counselling styles of physicians); ways of reaching a decision (three different ways that women used to make their decision. There were gaps in the literature on aspects affecting women's treatment preferences, their preferred decision-making style and how they want to be involved in this decision-making process.

This scoping review provides a global overview of women's perceptions on and preferences for treatment for SUI, and highlights a lack of knowledge on women's ideas of the treatment decision process. To provide clinicians with better guidance for their counselling and decision-making approaches, studies on women's perceptions of the decision-making process and the different decision-making styles are needed.