title: Quality of life in men with urinary incontinence after prostate cancer surgery.
abstract: Quality of life assessment is significant to health care providers because it helps us understand the experience of well-being as it relates to an illness and its severity, symptoms, and co-morbidities. Attempting to deduce the influence of illness on quality of one's life is complex; however, this area of research has demonstrated that the measurement of quality of life is as important in providing comprehensive care as the treatment itself. Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in American men. Radical prostatectomy is frequently considered the treatment of choice for localized prostate cancer. Despite its widespread use, considerable morbidity exists, including erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Although not all men who undergo radical prostatectomy will experience urinary incontinence, those who do find that it influences their daily lives, affecting the clothes they wear, their activities, sleep patterns, social relationships, and self-esteem. Based on the compelling nature of this problem, this article will focus on the effects that urinary incontinence has on the quality of life in men who undergo surgical treatment for prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland School of Nursing, 655 W Lombard St, Suite 390, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Powel
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000379:methods; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D011788:Quality of Life; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*