Prevalência de queixas de incontinência urinária em usuárias de um serviço de atenção primária no município de Fortaleza (CE)

Abstract

The aim of this study was identify the prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) complaints in women who were waiting a gynecological nursing consultation in a basic health care unit. The research is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in a Health Center located in the Third Regional Executive Secretary of Fortaleza (CE), Brazil. The study included all women over 18 years who sought the gynecology service from July to October 2016. An individual interview was conducted using an instrument with sociodemographic data, investigation of UI complaints and quality of life (QL) in women with UI. Thereafter we used descriptive statistical analysis, Chi-square and t Student tests through the SPSS program (version 22.0). For all tests a 95% confidence interval and a significance level of 5% were used. The research is part of another underway study approved by Research Ethics Board of the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), respecting all ethical aspects related to research involving human beings. A total of 322 women between a minimum age of 18 and a maximum of 85 years old participated in the study. Of these, 120 (37.3%) women were with UI, in which 64 (53.3%) reported stress urinary incontinence (SUI), 22 (18.3%) reported urinary incontinence emergency (UIE) and 32 (26.7%) reported mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). The risk factors associated with UI were age, number of pregnancies and births, number of vaginal deliveries, number of abortions, diabetes, hypertension, chronic cough, use of diuretics and oral hypoglycemic agents, family history of pelvic prolapse and smoking. Among women with UI, only 17 (14.2%) sought some kind of care justifying not seeking treatment because they believed the problem was normal for age. When comparing the QL of all the women in this study, we identified that the averages of the domains of women with UI were all smaller when compared with the women without urinary problems, characterizing the QL impairment of women with incontinence. In addition, QL was compared between the groups of women with the different kinds of UI and it was reported that the QL impairment was higher in the group of women with MUI. Sexual function was also more impaired in women who had MUI. The study revealed the prevalence of women with UI complaints at a primary health care service, the factors that interfered for onset of the disease and the causes for which there was no demand for treatment. The majority was unaware of the disease and the existing treatments, living with the problem and the consequences that it entails for their lives. Health professionals generally do not question about UI, leading the belief that the disease is not important and does not cause health problems.