Developing a cultural model for long-term female urinary incontinence.
The purpose of this study is to examine the subjective experience of long-term urinary incontinence and to show how a cultural model helps define that experience. Using a narrative approach within a cultural models framework, the specific aims are to describe and analyze: (1) what urinary incontinence means; and (2) how that meaning is constructed and negotiated by women living with urinary incontinence. 17 community-dwelling women (from Philadelphia, USA, and its immediate suburbs) participated in semi-structured interviews. Plot types and shared themes were compared with themes that emerged from media representations of female incontinence, and a cultural model was developed. Findings suggest: (1) the meaning of long-term female urinary incontinence is constructed and negotiated as a result of individual and shared experiences; (2) the cultural model constructed by women differs significantly from the professional, primarily biomedical model; and (3) women's narratives provide a method for accommodating similarities and differences between lay and professional models.
Bradway
Christine Wanich
CW
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA. cwb@nursing.upenn.edu <cwb@nursing.upenn.edu>
Barg
Frances
F
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003071:Cognition; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D015143:Philadelphia; D011788:Quality of Life; D012648:Self Care; D012962:Sociology, Medical; D013997:Time Factors; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*