Conservative care of urinary incontinence in the elderly

Urinary incontinence is a common, costly and demoralizing problem among the elderly. Remedial efforts are often not attempted owing to the misconception that incontinence is an inevitable and irreversible characteristic of aging. In fact, a variety of relatively conservative methods of reducing geriatric incontinence are available. This paper reviews the categories of incontinence, outlines assessment strategies and critiques the literature on biofeedback, exercise, behavior therapy and electrical stimulation as treatments for geriatric incontinence, and briefly considers a role for the chiropractic physician.