Behavioral therapy in elderly women with urinary incontinence: content validation of a protocol

To develop and validate the content of a behavioral therapy protocol aiming at improving urinary incontinence in elderly women.

This is a methodological study to develop and validate the content of a protocol to be applied with elderly women with urinary incontinence. It was conducted in two phases: 1) development of the protocol based on a literature review, NANDA-I and NIC; 2) content validation through evaluation of the protocol by experts in a focus group.

Five experts participated in the validation of the protocol. The analysis occurred over six days in November 2023. The items evaluated were: 1) Education about urinary incontinence; 2) Assessment of behavior using the voiding diary; 3) Identification of urinary loss using the pad test; 4) Proprioception; 5) Assessment of pelvic floor muscle strength; 6) Perineal exercises. Data analysis followed three stages: pre-analysis, material exploration, and data treatment and interpretation, using thematic content analysis by frequency. Out of the six items, four received total agreement.

The protocol is applicable by nurses. The content and presentation of the protocol are considered valid for the implementation in the treatment of urinary incontinence in elderly women.