Lift More, Leak Less!
Lift More, Leak Less!
It means that you have the right to know about our research before deciding to participate. We want to explain the study to you in a clear and straightforward way. When you give your informed consent, it means you agree to participate because you understand what it involves and without any pressure or negative consequences. You also have the freedom to ask questions and get more information if something is unclear.
Urinary incontinence is widespread among women in general and very common among high-impact athletes. Unfortunately, knowledge about urinary incontinence among strength sport female athletes is poor. One of the ways to better understand the condition is to explore when urine leakage occurs during training and explore treatments that is suited for strength sport athletes. Study One focuses on the knowledge, attitude, and practice of managing urinary incontinence, as well as assess its prevalence in the United Kingdom. To do that we invite all female strength sports athletes to take the survey regardless of whether incontinence occurs.
You have been asked to take part in the study because you are actively engaged in a strength sport discipline (i.e., powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, or strongwoman) and you may have had experience with urine leakage during training and/or competition. You may have received an email from your sport governing body/association, gym or our recruitment advertising on Facebook and Instagram. If you have never experienced urine leakage during training, you are still eligible to complete the questionnaires, because this will provide a better overall picture of the female strength sports population in the United Kingdom.
Your experience in strength sport is important to us and will help us better understand whether urinary incontinence is widespread among women lifters here in the United Kingdom. There is an online survey on Qualtrics and/or a one-on-one interview for Study One. You may choose to do both, only the survey or just the interview.
The online survey asks about your experience with urinary incontinence, what you know and think about it, and how you handle it during training. The survey can take 15-30 minutes to finish, but you can do it in parts over five days. Just make sure to use the same internet browser on the same computer and use the same link to the survey when you come back to it.
Also, you will be asked whether you would be interested in a one-on-one interview with the Principal Investigator. The interview will be one hour in duration, scheduled at a mutually agreed time, and your choice of an interview by phone or video call. Recordings will be recorded and securely stored in OneDrive. Questions in the survey and interview will primarily focus on your experience with urinary incontinence during training, personal questions (on age, ethnicity, marital status, geographic location of residence, and education) as well as reproductive health questions (on menstrual, contraceptive, and obstetric history). Findings of the survey will not identify any individual and your information will be securely stored with only the Principal Investigator and her academic supervisors having access to the password-protected data.
If you are at least 18 years old and consistently train in powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, or strong(wo)man events, then you are eligible to participate in the study. You can complete the questionnaires even if you do not experience urine leakage during training, because this will help us determine the number of women active in these sports.
Participation is completely voluntary and unpaid, and it is your decision whether to partake in the study. An abridged consent form precedes the online survey to indicate that you have read the information about the study. You can withdraw from the study at any point while completing the questionnaires by exiting the page, which will render your data unusable. Only data from fully completed questionnaires will be used for analysis. If you agree to an interview and decide to withdraw during the interview, you can do so by informing the interviewer and the interview will be stopped and your interview data will not be used. If you agree to an interview and change your mind before the actual interview, you can do so by signing a Participant Withdrawal Form. All data will be anonymised and then analysed. This includes transcription of the recorded interviews.
Withdrawal request after the end of the study period (approximately December 2023 for Study One) will not be possible, because all data will have been anonymised at that point and in the process of analysis. Identification and extraction of data from a specific individual after anonymisation will not be possible.
Participation in the study will require time commitment to complete the survey and interview; so, this may be a disadvantage for you if you are already short on time.
The survey and interview all pertain to symptoms and quality-of-life and training impact of urinary incontinence. These may seem intrusive for some people, and some may also feel too embarrassed to respond. The research team places utmost attention to guarding the confidentiality and privacy of all data collected, and fully answered questions will provide invaluable insights for the study. In addition to data anonymisation, only the Principal Investigator and her two supervisors will have access to the data.
Your experience in lifting and incontinence is important to the study, thus, you will directly contribute to improving gaps in knowledge on the subject. Even if you do not experience urine leakage, your input will still be valuable for the study, because currently there is no available data on the number of women who lift in the United Kingdom. Data from this study will provide insight on the prevalence and experiences of urine incontinence among female lifters – a subject that is rarely discussed among sports professionals.
Results of the study will be disseminated in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, a doctoral thesis, and some findings will be disseminated via social media. If you wish to be notified about findings of the study when it is completed, you may indicate so in the survey or send us an email!
Yes. All data from participants will be anonymised at the end of the study period before analysis commences and findings will not identify individuals. This includes transcription of the recorded interviews. All data will be kept in a password-protected cloud storage that has multiple security layers and encryption, including video recordings and their transcriptions.
Computers used for data analysis will also be password-protected with two-factor authentication. Study data will be stored for 10 years and then destroyed in accordance with Cardiff Metropolitan University’s data management policy.
The study is led by the Principal Investigator (Indira Pintak, PhD, MSW) who is a doctoral researcher at the School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is supervised by Jeremy Moody, PhD and Joseph Esformes, PhD who are also involved in the research project.
If you have any concerns or need clarification about any aspect of the study, please do not hesitate to contact the principal investigator or her supervisors:
Indira Pintak: I.Pintak@outlook.cardiffmet.ac.uk
Jeremy Moody: jmoody@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Joseph Esformes: jesformes@cardiffmet.ac.uk
If you would like to communicate with someone outside the research team, please contact: cshsresoffice@cardiffmet.ac.uk
If you would like to withdraw your participation in the study, please request, complete, and submit the Participant Withdrawal Form to cshsresoffice@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Study One has been reviewed and approved by a sub-panel of the School of Sport and Health Sciences Ethics Committee. Should you have any questions regarding ethics approval of this study, please contact sportethics@cardiffmet.ac.uk
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