Impact of urinary incontinence on women's quality of life: an integrative literature review

Abstract

Objective: to verify the impact of urinary incontinence on women’s quality of life. Method: integrative review conducted in CAPES, LILACS and PubMed electronic sources. For inclusion, articles had to be available in full electronically and address the subject; search duplicates were excluded. Twelve articles were selected. Results: these studies, nine cross-sectional, were published from 2015 to 2019. Four thematic categories were identified: women’s perception of UI; impact of UI on women’s QOL; UI type with greatest impact on QOL; and importance of assessing incontinent women’s QOL. Conclusion: UI had adverse impact on QOL of women, because of physical, sexual, occupational, and social limitations, as well as feelings of shame, lack of control, discomfort, insecurity, suffering and guilt.