Quality of Life Research

, Volume 25, Issue 1, pp 223–232 | Cite as

Relationships among symptom severity, coping styles, and quality of life in community-dwelling women with urinary incontinence: a multiple mediator model

  • Dongjuan Xu
  • Nana Liu
  • Haili Qu
  • Liqin Chen
  • Kefang Wang
Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the relationships among symptom severity, coping styles, and quality of life (QOL) in community-dwelling women with urinary incontinence (UI).

Methods

A total of 592 women with UI participated in this cross-sectional study. Bivariate Pearson’s correlation was used to examine the correlations between symptom severity, coping styles, and QOL. Multivariate regression models and Sobel tests were used to test the mediating effect of coping styles. Additionally, a multiple mediator model was used to examine the mediating role of coping styles collectively. All regression models were adjusted for age, education, marital status, income, duration of UI, and type of UI.

Results

Participants tended to use avoidant and palliative coping styles and not use instrumental coping style. Avoidant and palliative coping styles were associated with poor QOL, and partially mediated the association between symptom severity and QOL. Nearly 73 % of the adverse effect of symptom severity on QOL was mediated by avoidant and palliative coping styles.

Conclusions

The use of avoidant and palliative coping styles was higher with more severe urine leakage, and QOL tended to be poorer. Coping styles should be addressed in UI management. It may be of particular value to look closely at negative coping styles and implement education and training of patients in improving their coping skills related to managing UI, which will in turn improve their QOL.

Keywords

Coping style Quality of life Symptom severity Urinary incontinence Women 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This study was financed by the National Social Science Foundation in China (14CSH063) and Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education Planning Fund in China (14YJAZH076). The authors would like to acknowledge all the participants, research assistants, and community nurses who helped with the data collection. We are grateful to Yuan Zhang and Emily Long from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (USA) and Edanz Group for their editing of the manuscript.

Author contributions

Dongjuan Xu and Kefang Wang were responsible for the study design. Nana Liu, Haili Qu, and Liqin Chen performed the data collection. Dongjuan Xu and Nana Liu were responsible for the data analysis and drafting of the manuscript. Kefang Wang supervised the study and made critical revisions to the paper for important intellectual content.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of NursingShandong UniversityJinanChina
  2. 2.Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong UniversityJinanChina
  3. 3.School of Public HealthUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolisUSA

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