Impact of Chronic Female Urinary Incontinence on the Intimate Relationship

Purpose: To explore the relative contributions of female urinary incontinence symptom severity and psychosocial factors to relationship satisfaction for midlife women and their intimate partners. 

Background: The Corbin and Strauss Theory of Collaborative Chronic Illness Trajectory Model (Corbin & Strauss, 1984; 1988), current evidence regarding the psychosocial impact of living with urinary incontinence, and the impact of chronic illness on intimate relationships informed the choice of study factors.

Participants: Partnered women aged 45-65 with self-reported stress, urgency or mixed urinary incontinence were purposively recruited via clinic, community, social media, and snowball sampling. Recruited women offered participation to their partner.

Methods: A descriptive, point-in-time analysis of women and partner responses (N = 43 dyads) to anonymous, mailed surveys comprised of established instruments chosen as measures of: urinary incontinence symptom severity, relationship satisfaction, quality of interpersonal interactions (relational ethics, sexual quality of life, incontinence-related communication), and women’s self-concept (self-esteem, body image, depression, anxiety).

Results: Women and partner scores on relationship variables were congruent by paired samples t-test (p < .05). Incontinence symptom severity demonstrated no significant correlations with the other study variables. Correlation matrix demonstrated moderate to large correlations among measures of women’s self-concept and measures of the relationship (r = -.39 to -.71, p < .05), including relationship satisfaction (r = .31 to .87, p < .05). On exploratory standard multiple regression, study measures explained 43.8% of the variance in partners’ relationship satisfaction scores (F (6, 33) = 4.286, p = .003; R² = .438, adjusted R² = .336), with significant unique contributions from sexual quality of life (14%) and women’s depressive symptoms (10%). 

Conclusions: When working with women who have chronic urinary incontinence, an assessment of sexual quality of life and depressive symptoms may be helpful in assessing the impact of symptoms on the woman’s intimate relationship.