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Purpose: To identify the factors associated with treatment-seeking behavior for urinary incontinence (UI) among postpartum women.Design: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 142 women with postpar- tum UI responded a telephone interview between August of 2010 and March of 2011. The association between the treatment-seeking and the predicting variables were measured through odds ratio and 95% confidence interval.Results: The treatment-seeking percentage was 37.3 % and the treatment per- centage was 27.5%. The result of multiple logistic regressions indicated that: counseling about UI in pregnancy, postpartum physical exercise, and Spanish nationality predicted 47.8% of the variance in treatment-seeking behaviorConclusions: The lack of counseling largely determines the low rates of treatment-seeking among Spanish mothers.Clinical Relevance: Nursing counseling during pregnancy can contribute substantially to increasing the number of women treated for postpartum UI.Urinary incontinence (UI) is a health problem that affects women all over the world. It is estimated that it could affect 24% to 45% of women and that 5% to 15% suffer this problem on a daily basis (Milsom, Altman, Lapitan, Nelson, & Sillen, 2009). The women report that it worsens their quality of life because it provokes fear, frustration, anxiety, and causes difficulties in having a social life, in practicing physical activities or that it worsens their sex life (Burman & Largo-janssen 2013). Despite the impact that UI has on their health, studies conducted in different countries show low consultation, diagnosis and treatment rates (Adedokun, Morhason- Bello, Ojengbede, Okonkwo, & Kolade, 2012; Al-Badr, Brasha, Al-Raddadi, Noorwali, & Ross, 2012; Welch, Taubenberger, & Tennstedt, 2011).Childbirth is independently associated with the appear- ance and persistence of UI in young and middle-aged women. UI prevalence figures in the postpartum are be- tween 15% and 30% (Milsom et al., 2009). Women with UI symptoms beyond the third month of postpartum have a high risk of maintaining the problem in the long term (Viktrup, Rortveit, & Lose, 2006). Even though there are therapeutic strategies in postpartum to prevent, reduce or solve urine losses, and a conservative management of UI is more effective and cheaper when the symptoms are light or mild (Aston, 2010), it will take years for some women to be diagnosed and others never will be (Welch et al., 2011). Therefore, the aims of this study were to (a) determine the percentage of women with UI who decide to seek treatment before the 6th month postpartum and (b) analyze the factors associated with treatment-seeking behavior.Studies inform that seeking help is associated with severity and UI impact on women's quality of life (Howard & Steggall, 2010), and with the existence of barriers such as access to health services (Berger, Patel, Miller, DeLancey, & Fenner, 2011) or their ignorance of the possibility of being treated (Adedokun et al., 2012). On the other hand, health professionals are barely in- volved in the problem, as it is the women themselves who deal with the issue more often than health profes- sionals (Diokno et al., 2004). It is also known that when women seek treatment, they do not always receive treat- ment (Welch et al., 2010).There is a lack of evidence to state that the same situa- tion of underestimation, underdiagnosis, and undertreat- ment takes place postpartum. Few studies have analyzed seeking help in postpartum (Marecki & Seo, 2010). Two qualitative studies (Buurman & Lagro-Janssen, 2013; Mason, Glenn, Walton, & Hughes, 2001) conclude that postpartum women lack information about UI, they be- lieve this will disappear spontaneously, and they are not encouraged to seek help. Two quantitative stud- ies found a rate in consultation and postpartum ther- apy around 11% (Driul et al., 2009; Lepire & Hatem, 2007). … |