STIGMATIZING A NORMAL CONDITION - URINARY-INCONTINENCE IN LATE-LIFE

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.