Abstract

MELO, Bruna Evellyn Souza; FREITAS, Bruna Carneiro Rodrigues; OLIVEIRA, Valéria Rodrigues Costa  and  MENEZES, Ruth Losada de. Correlation between signs and symptoms of urinary incontinence and self-esteem in elderly women. Rev. bras. geriatr. gerontol. [online]. 2012, vol.15, n.1, pp. 41-50. ISSN 1809-9823.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1809-98232012000100005.

OBJECTIVE: Identify the prevalence of signs and symptoms of urinary incontinence and their relationship with the self-esteem of elderly. METHODS: The sample was constitute by 27 elderly, mean age 67.59 (± 5.16), participants of Open University for the Elderly (UNATI) of the Social Gerontology Program of Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás. Three instruments were used for: the Mini mental state examination, a specific instrument prepared for this study and a self-esteem and self-image questionnaire developed by Steglich. The statistical treatment was descriptive and non-parametrical test, with significance level of p<0.05. RESULTS: It was observed that 44.4% of the elderly have urine loss, 58.33% lose once a week, all reported losing a little amount of urine and 66.7% have urine loss for over a year. The self-esteem was considered low in 77.8% of elderly, but no correlation between self-esteem and symptoms of UI was found. CONCLUSION: The decreased self-esteem is a frequent condition in the elderly people and several factors can contribute for this, but this sample did not allow to identify the contribution of the UI.

Keywords : Health of the elderly; Mental health; Motivation; Urinary incontinence; Elderly; Self-esteem.