Patient-Reported Goals of Women With Urinary Incontinence in Primary Care

Understanding women's treatment goals when seeking care for urinary incontinence (UI) is essential to delivering patient-centered care. However, most studies describing patient-reported goals have been limited to specialty settings, leaving a gap in knowledge about women's goals in primary care.

The objectives of this study were to characterize self-reported treatment goals among women with UI receiving care in primary care settings and to examine differences in patient characteristics by goal type.

This mixed-methods cross-sectional secondary analysis used data from the "Identify, Teach, and Treat (IT2): Automating Clinical Decision Pathways for the Care of Women" project. IT2 integrated automated UI screening and a digital educational tool into routine primary care visits. Women aged 18 years and older who screened positive for UI and desired more information between January 2023 and December 2024 provided free-text responses to the question, "What are your treatment goals for urinary incontinence?" Responses were categorized into goal domains using qualitative descriptive analysis, followed by quantitative comparison of patient characteristics across goal categories.

Among 2,986 women who screened positive for UI, 458 (15.3%) reported treatment goals. Symptom relief (46.1%) and information seeking (33.6%) were most common, followed by lifestyle (4.6%) and emotional goals (0.6%); 15.1% reported overlapping goals. Women prioritizing symptom relief were older (mean: 58.7 y vs 54.6 y) and had higher International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ) scores, whereas those emphasizing information seeking preferred to avoid procedural interventions.

Women's treatment goals for UI in primary care are diverse, multidimensional, and patient-specific. Recognizing this granularity can improve how clinicians and researchers deliver patient-centered care.