Exploring the relationships between psychological experiences, wellbeing, social support and illness perceptions on symptom severity and recovery for women with Chronic Urinary Tract Infections

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: Chronic urinary tract infections (cUTIs) are urinary tract infections that are repeated or don’t resolve with traditional treatment. cUTIs disrupt physical and psychological wellbeing potentially contributing to a vicious symptom cycle. The analysis aimed to understand if perceived social support, psychological experiences, wellbeing, and illness perceptions can predict symptom severity and recovery in cUTIs.

Design: Data was collected at one time point using on online survey disseminated in collaboration with patient advocacy non-profit, Live UTI Free and on social media.

Methods: 786 women from across the world (mean age 43.5 years) completed the survey. Ordinal Logistic Regression was conducted to determine if the odds of observing each response category of Symptom severity (Model 1) and Recovery (Model 2) could be explained by Wellbeing, Psychological Experiences (PE), Health Social Support (HSS), Relational Social Support (RSS) and Illness Perceptions (IP).

Results: Both models significantly predicted the outcome variables described Model 1:(symptom severity):X2(7)=328.64, p=<.001), and Model 2 (recovery)=X2(28)=134.54, p=<.001). Model 1(symptom severity)[McFadden: .116] accounted for more of the variance than Model 2(recovery) [McFadden .100].

In Model 1, Wellbeing (X2(1)=(4.899), p=0.027), and IPQ (X2(1)=231.22, p=<.001), positively significantly predicted symptom severity. In Model 2, Wellbeing (X2(1)=24.84, p=<.001),, and IPQ (X2(1)=159.56, p=<.001), Health related Social Support (X2(1)=10.558, p=.01), significantly predicted recovery.

Conclusion: Results highlight the role of psychosocial factors in outcomes in cUTIs and present a potential intervenable model of outcomes for women with cUTIs that could enhance biomedical treatment provision.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jun 2025
EventDivision of Health Psychology Annual Conference 2025: Together Towards Health and Wellbeing: Support for All - Leonardo Hotel Cardiff, Cardiff , United Kingdom
Duration: 4 Jun 20255 Jun 2025
https://www.bps.org.uk/event/division-health-psychology-annual-conference-2025

Conference

ConferenceDivision of Health Psychology Annual Conference 2025
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityCardiff
Period4/06/255/06/25
Internet address

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