The Bladder Habits, Experiences & Knowledge of Justice-Involved Women (Prison PLUS)
Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are common among women and girls in the United States. This array of symptoms, including overactive bladder, urinary incontinence, urgency, and voiding difficulties, are associated with diminished quality of life, mental health problems (i.e. anxiety and depression), reduced workplace productivity, falls, decreased physical activity, overweight, and cardiovascular disease. While there are treatments available to address these symptoms, little is known about how to prevent development of LUTS, and women often do not know treatment is possible or are too embarrassed to engage in care.
A multi-site NIDDK-funded study, Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Women (PLUS), was launched in 2015 to address gaps in knowledge about LUTS prevention. The PLUS program of research, shaped by a transdisciplinary team, uses a social ecological model to examine the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and community factors that shape bladder health across a woman’s lifespan.
Dr. Smoyer’s Prison PLUS project furthers the PLUS agenda by exploring how environmental and contextual risk factors shape the bladder habits, attitudes, realities, and experiences of justice-involved women.
For this inquiry, justice-involved women includes women who are incarcerated, under community supervision (probation/parole), and/or formerly incarcerated.
The environments and contexts which will be explored include correctional facilities (i.e. police lock up, jail, and prison), community supervision, in-patient and out-patient substance use treatment programs, and temporary shared housing and homelessness.
Data collection for this project began in Fall 2019. In total, ten (10) focus groups with justice-involved women in New Haven and Hartford, and incarcerated at York Correctional Institution, were conducted. Findings contribute to knowledge about the individual and structural determinants of bladder health.
Figure 1: Prison PLUS Contextual and Environmental Risk Factors of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) for Justice-Involved Women
Grant
Prison PLUS: Environmental and Contextual Risk Factors of LUTS among Justice-Involved Women (2019 - 2021), NIH/NIDDK Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium, Role: Principal Investigator; $150,000
Related Publications & Presentations
Smoyer, A. B., Pittman, A., & Borzillo, P. (2023). Humans peeing: Justice-involved women’s access to toilets in public spaces. PLoS One, 18(3), e0282917. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282917
Smoyer, A. B., Schwarz, P., Camenga, D., & Rickey, L. (in press). Negotiating toilet access: A qualitative exploration of women’s incarceration. The Prison Journal.
Smoyer, A. B. & Clement, J. (2022, May). Women’s Lived Experiences of Incarceration. Presentation at 2022 Idaho Conference on Alcohol and Drug Dependency: Boise, ID.
Smoyer, A. B. (2022, April). Doing Time: Impact of Prison Life on Women’s Health and Psychosocial Outcomes. Social Work CEU Workshop at Yale New Haven Hospital: New Haven, CT. Virtual event.
Smoyer, A. B. (2022, April). Group Dynamics: Women’s Bladder Health and Incarceration. Presentation at Equity Research and Innovation Center, Yale School of Medicine: New Haven, CT. Virtual event.
Smoyer, A. B. (2021, April). Women's Bladder Health and Incarceration: Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms. Poster presentation at 2021 National Conference on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC): Virtual event.
Smoyer, A. B. (2021, April). Prison PLUS: Environmental and Contextual Risk Factors of LUTS among Justice-Involved Women. Paper presented at 14th Annual Academic and Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health: Virtual event.
Smoyer, A.B. (2019, December). Prison PLUS: Bladder Health among Justice-Involved Women. Poster presented to Association for Justice-Involved Female Organizations (AJFO) Conference: Atlanta, GA.