The purposes of this study were to examine the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention program combining pelvic floor muscle exercise with bladder training for urinary incontinence and also to conduct follow-up assessment after self-training.

This study was conducted using a non-equivalent control group, pretest-posttest design. The subjects were 60 middle-aged women (control group, n=30; intervention group, n=30) who experienced an episode of urinary incontinence at least once a week. The program was run over a 4 week period (once a week) and composed of urinary incontinence education, pelvic floor muscle exercise, and bladder training.

Overall, there was a significant difference in urinary incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being related to urinary incontinence between the treatment and control group. Of the variables, weekly leakage frequencies, leakage amounts on each occasion, leakage index, frequencies of nocturia, and quality of life were significantly different between the groups. Follow-up assessment (9th week) indicated that overall incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being were significantly different between the posttest and follow-up assessments. Most variables of incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being were significantly improved at follow-up assessment versus posttest.

The program was overall effective in terms of relieving symptoms and improving psycho-social well-being related to urinary incontinence, and this effect continued after a 4-weeks self-training period. In the respect that this is a community-based application study, the results can be meaningful and applicable.

The main purpose of this study was to establish a nursing intervention data base to improve maternal attachment.

The first group of mothers(control group), experienced their first physical contact with their infants after being discharged from the hospital. The second group (experimental group) practiced early initial mother-infant postpartum contact known as the most sensitive period for founding maternal-infancy attachment. The subjects of this study gave birth to normal infants at M hospital from Aug.25 to Sept.30, 2004. During the same time, data was collected through direct observation, with instruments designed by Cropley et al., to assess the behaviors of normal attachment. The statistical methods for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test with an SPSS program.

The group practicing initial mother-infant contact, showed a higher degree of physical and functional bonding than the group experiencing the first contact after discharge from the hospital (control group)(p<.01). The group practicing initial mother-infant contact, showed higher degrees of bonding attachment assessments than the group experiencing their first initial contact after their discharge from the hospital(p<.01).

The group practicing early mother-infant contact, showed more maternal-infant interaction than the group experiencing their initial contact after their discharge from the hospital. These results show that maternal attachment behavior increases according with an early initial mother-infant contact.

This study was conducted to investigate the factors that affect the severity of urinary incontinence and the quality of life of women with urinary incontinence.

An exploratory correlation research design was applied and the sixty women who responded that they currently experience involuntary urine leakage at least once per week were invited to participate in the study.

According to the study results, the factors that significantly contribute to the severity of urinary incontinence were age, number of parity, and number of normal deliveries. Other influencing factors, such as obesity, menopausal state, hysterectomy, and number of episiotomies, were not significant to predict the severity of urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinence frequency per week and duration of experiencing urinary incontinence were shown to be factors that significantly affect quality of life.

In women above 60 years old, multiparity, and multiple experiences of vaginal delivery tended to present a higher level of severity of urinary incontinence. In addition, women with higher frequencies of urinary incontinence per week and a longer duration of urinary incontinence showed a lower level of quality of life.