The Relationship Between University Students' Urinary Incontinence Awareness and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Background: Urinary incontinence is an important health problem with a high prevalence. This problem affects self-esteem negatively by decreasing the quality of life of individuals. Objectives: This research was carried out to determine the relationship between urinary incontinence awareness and self-esteem of university students. Methods: This descriptive correlational study was carried out with 646 students attending in the Nursing, Midwifery, Social Work department of a University. The data were collected by using “Introductory Information Form”, “Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale” and “Incontinence Awareness Scale”. Descriptive statistics, independent sample – t test, Anova test, tukey test, Mann Withney U and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the data. The research was conducted by taking necessary permission. Results: The mean age of the students was 20.4 ± 1.75. 28.8% of the students experienced urinary incontinence. The factors that prevent the acceptance of male students who experienced urinary incontinence as a health problem and the sub-dimension scores of coping with urinary incontinence were higher than the female students and the difference between them was statistically significant (p<.05). A negative correlation was found between the factors that prevented the acceptance of the urinary incontinence scale as a health problem, and a positive correlation between the self-esteem scale of the health motivation and restriction subscale and the self-esteem scale. Conclusion: It was determined that the factors preventing the acceptance of urinary incontinence awareness scale as health problem, coping with urinary incontinence, experiencing urinary fear subscales were moderate, health motivation subscale was poor and restriction subscale was good. It was found that students with urinary incontinence had low self-esteem. © 2020, Dokuz Eylul University. All rights reserved.