Women's Pelvic Health Program

Abstract

Over 70.3% of noninstitutionalized older adults over the age of 65 experience symptoms related to urinary incontinence (Goriana et al., 2014). Urinary incontinence is not a normal consequence of aging and can be reduced with education and pelvic floor therapy. The capstone student collaborated with a retirement community in Zionsville, Indiana where they identified a gap in their services related to pelvic health education and programming. The capstone student designed and implemented a six-week women’s pelvic health program to fill this gap and decrease urinary incontinence in the women living in the retirement community. Overall, the project improved the lives of the residents and results showed increased confidence in ability to retain their urine in difficult situations through utilization of the Geriatric Self-Efficacy Scale – Urinary Incontinence (GSE-UI) (Tannenbaum et al., 2008) as a pre and posttest.