This article documents a collaborative health agency-university community demonstration
project on urinary incontinence in older women. The basic program-research division of respon
sibility was blurred substantially in this collaboration. The article focuses on a telephone survey
of 321 elderly women conducted as part of a needs assessment, which also served as baseline
data in the evaluation of a public education initiative. The survey provided information for defin
ing target populations, shaping educational messages, and selecting communication channels.
The prevalence of involuntary urine loss was 34%, with 20% of all women reporting weekly in
continence. There were few differences by continence status in health, sociodemographic char
acteristics, orbeliefs about incontinence. Women used many communication channels for health
information and had a preference for information from health professionals. Factors that con
tributed to the collaborative relationship included technical expertise, diversity of expertise and
perspectives, and the enhancement of capacity in collaborators.
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