Urinary incontinence in adults : nurses' beliefs, education and role in continence promotion

Introduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) has a high prevalence worldwide, in both genders; the available data suggest that the number of incontinent people will dramatitally increase in the next few years. The costs generated by UI are similar to those induced by HIV and breast cancer. We aimed to investigate nurses' beliefs, knowledge and educational situation in the field of urinary continence. Methods: We performed a narrative review of literature, by searching qualitative and qualitative studies (2006-11) in PubMed, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library. Papers investigating pharmacological and/or surgical intervention were excluded. Only studies referred to adults have been taken into consideration. Results: Prevalence ranges from 25 to 45% in women; in men, post-prostatectomy UI occurs in a median of 10-15% of the total cases. Benign prostatic hyperplasia, which affects 50% of men aged 50 to 60, is often associated with urge incontinence. The yearly individual expense for pads in Italy has been estimated to be as high as €913 in 2004. People often do not know about the possible solutions to UI; nurses seem to lack education in continence promotion, notwithstanding the proven effectiveness of the conservative interventions they could perform in autonomy. In Italy, few academic programs offer nursing education in this field. Conclusions: Urinary incontinence seems to be an underestimated problem; nurses often lack proper education in continence promotion. Academic, structured courses would be a solution; however, since education itself is not sufficient to really improve clinical practice, organizational support would be required to effectively promote continence in the broadest possible population. This would be a long-term investment for both quality of care and costs. Further studies are needed, regarding conservative management of UI; research could lead to a strong integration between clinical and academic branches of nursing, resulting in good quality evidence for clinical practice.