[A study of coping in middle-aged women with urinary incontinence]

The purpose of this study is to clarify the coping patterns of women with urinary incontinence (UI) who visited an incontinence special unit. Nineteen patients ranging from 42 to 86 in age were interviewed. When they had met the accidents or daily occurrences with UI, their attitudes toward UI were classified into six coping patterns. They were "managing of UI", "keeping UI in secret", "asking for medical treatment for UI", "asking for support", "accepting UI as a fact or being resigned to UI, and "avoiding the fact with UI". All these six coping patterns reflect their desire to keep themselves in normal status. They concentrated themselves on maintain the normalization so as to keep their self-esteem from the threat of UI.