Urinary incontinence among institutionalized oldest old Chinese men in Taiwan

To explore prevalence and related factors for urinary incontinence (UI) among the oldest old institutionalized Chinese men in Taiwan.

All residents living in Banciao Veterans Care Home were invited for study. UI was defined as urinary leakage at least once weekly. Additional data items from the Minimum Data Set (MDS Nursing Home Chinese Version 2.1) were used to explore impact associated with physical function, cognitive status and quality of life (social engagement, SocE). Depressive symptoms were screened by the Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale.

Data from 594 male residents (mean age: 80.9 +/- 5.3 years) were analyzed. Among all study subjects, 92.8% were functionally independent, 20.4% had certain cognitive impairment and 8.2% had depressive symptoms. The prevalence of UI in the Banciao Veterans Care Home was 10.1%. Compared with residents without UI, subjects with UI had poorer physical function, cognitive status, and more depressive symptoms. The mean SocE score was 1.5 +/- 1.3, and was similar between UI (+) and UI (-) subjects (1.4 +/- 1.2 vs. 1.6 +/- 1.3, P = 0.411). By multivariate logistic regression, poorer physical functional status, cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms were independent risk factors for UI (P < 0.05).

Poorer physical function, poorer cognitive status and depressive symptoms were all statistically significant independent risk factors for UI. However, SocE score (proxy indicator of quality of life) did not differ between subjects with and without UI. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the impact of UI on quality of life among oldest old institutionalized Chinese men in Taiwan.