# A Practice-based Intervention to Improve Care for Women with Urinary Incontinence

> **NIH NIH R56** · CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $101,796

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
The burden of urinary incontinence (UI) on American women is immense in human and financial terms, and
continues to rise with the growing population of older adults. The goal of this proposal is to improve the care for
UI provided to women and, in doing so, decrease the utilization of specialty care while improving patient
outcomes. Specific Aim 1 seeks to improve the quality of incontinence care provided to an ethnically diverse
population of women through a controlled practice-based intervention involving primary care providers. Three
Southern California medical groups will participate in a cluster randomized controlled trial in which 40 offices (12-
14 per site) will be randomized to undergo a practice-based incontinence intervention led by a
urologist/urogynecologist ”clinical champion” who is a member of that specific medical group. The intervention
will include physician education, individual performance feedback, electronic decision support, and patient
education. The quality of patient care, as evidenced by compliance with the quality indicators, will be measured
across the two randomized arms after implementation of the intervention. The investigators for this proposal
recently developed and pilot-tested a set of quality-of-care indicators (QIs) for urinary incontinence that
encompass care provided at both the generalist and specialist level. Compliance with these quality indicators
will be the key means to measure quality. In addition, in Specific Aim 2, utilization of specialists will be compared
before and after the intervention. The investigators hypothesize that improved care at the level of the primary
care physician will reduce the number of specialty referrals. Lastly, Specific Aim 3 will seek to measure the effect
of the intervention on patient outcomes. Under the hypothesis that a practice-based intervention will improve
disease-specific outcomes, symptom severity and quality of life will be measured at baseline by the urogenital
distress inventory-short form (UDI-6) and the incontinence impact questionnaire-short form (IIQ-7). After
implementation of the intervention, these questionnaires will be given a second time and outcomes will be
compared between control and intervention groups. We expect that this intervention will also reduce disparities
in care for underrepresented minorities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10257342
- **Project number:** 1R56DK117261-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Teryl Nuckols
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $101,796
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-20 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10257342

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10257342, A Practice-based Intervention to Improve Care for Women with Urinary Incontinence (1R56DK117261-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10257342. Licensed CC0.

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