Ls. Mitteness et Jc. Barker, STIGMATIZING A NORMAL CONDITION - URINARY-INCONTINENCE IN LATE-LIFE, Medical anthropology quarterly, 9(2), 1995, pp. 188-210
The geriatric medical literature presents a perspective on urinary inc
ontinence in the elderly that is sharply divergent from the realities
of medical and lay responses to incontinence. This contrast raises que
stions about the cultural significance of urinary incontinence. The ge
riatric literature reveals a consensus that urinary incontinence, a ma
jor health problem among the elderly, is treatable and frequently reve
rsible. The elderly and their health care providers, however, not only
see incontinence as an inevitable, irreversible, and normal part of g
rowing old but also consider it a sign of incompetence. This linkage o
f incontinence with incompetence forces elderly people to adopt severa
l strategies for managing their incontinence so as not to compromise t
heir competence in the eyes of others. Incontinence is a cultural symb
ol for the increasing dependencies of old age, dependencies that are m
uch feared and resented in U.S. society, where tremendous emphasis is
placed on independence even into advanced old age.