Abstract: Abstract of Distinction: The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) in Girls and Women: Developing a Prevention Research Agenda and Conceptual Framework (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)
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153 Abstract of Distinction: The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) in Girls and Women: Developing a Prevention Research Agenda and Conceptual Framework

Schedule:
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Bryce (Hyatt Regency Washington, Washington, DC)
* noted as presenting author
Sonya S. Brady, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN
Tamara Bavendam, MD, MS, Program Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD
Amanda Berry, PhD, MSN, CRNP, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Cynthia S. Fok, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN
Sheila Gahagan, MD, MPH, Division Chief / Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA
Patricia S. Goode, MD, Medical Director, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL
Cecilia T. Hardacker, MSN, RN, CNL, Director of Education, Howard Brown Health, Chicago, IL
Bernard L. Harlow, PhD, Professor, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Jeni Hebert-Beirne, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL
Cora E. Lewis, MD, MSPH, Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL
Jessica B. Lewis, LMFT, Deputy Director, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT
Lisa Kane Low, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, Associate Dean of Practice and Professional Graduate Programs, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Jerry L. Lowder, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Emily S. Lukacz, MD, MAS, Professor of Clinical Reproductive Medicine, University of California San Diego Health System, La Jolla, CA
Mary H. Palmer, PhD, RN, Helen W. & Thomas L. Umphlet Distinguished Professor in Aging, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
(For the Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium) This presentation describes the development of a prevention science research agenda and a guiding conceptual framework in a domain of health that has traditionally been focused on the treatment of illness. Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are prevalent and include a broad range of physical health problems, including bladder infections, urinary incontinence, voiding dysfunction, overactive bladder, and bladder pain syndrome. These symptoms impact the health, quality of life, and productivity of girls and women across the life course. To date, research, practice, and public health policies have focused almost exclusively on the treatment of LUTS. The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Research Consortium was established to apply a prevention science research paradigm to the promotion of bladder health and prevention of LUTS among girls and women, in contrast to a treatment-only paradigm. This presentation describes the consortium’s formation and initial efforts in defining bladder health, adopting a prevention science paradigm, and developing a conceptual framework that integrates social ecology with biology and emphasizes a life course perspective. The conceptual framework is informed by traditional social ecological models of public health, biopsychosocial models of health, Glass and McAtee’s Society-Behavior-Biology Nexus, and the World Health Organization’s conceptual framework for action on social determinants of health inequities. Notable features of the PLUS conceptual framework include the interaction between social ecology and biologically-based predispositions towards health or disease, embodiment of societally constructed risk and protective factors, and responsibility of policymakers to identify and redress health inequities. The PLUS conceptual framework is being utilized to guide the consortium’s prevention research agenda. The consortium has identified potential risk and protective factors at different levels of social ecology and biology. These factors were clustered into research themes that will be studied at different life stages through qualitative and quantitative research methods. Findings will then be used to develop prevention interventions that attempt to change selected risk and protective factors. The PLUS Consortium is creating the foundation for developing and testing evidence-based approaches that can be broadly disseminated to the public, integrated into health care systems, and utilized to shape health-promoting policies within schools, workplaces, public spaces, and public health agencies. The PLUS Consortium’s work has the potential to promote the health equity and overall well-being of girls and women in diverse communities.
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