Clinical, functional, and psychosocial characteristics of an incontinent nursing home population

Although urinary incontinence is recognized as a prevalent, disruptive, and costly problem among nursing home residents, the factors associated with this condition have not been carefully studied. We compared clinical, functional, and psychosocial characteristics of 50 incontinent and 50 continent nursing home residents. In spite of a selection bias due to the informed consent process that resulted in the exclusion of many of the most functionally impaired incontinent residents, the incontinent study participants had significantly greater impairments in functional abilities related to toileting and, on average, took longer to perform a timed series of toileting-related tasks than did the continent comparison group. With the exception of bacteriuria, we did not find incontinence to be associated with most of the major clinical conditions and medications we examined, nor did we find differences in morale and most measures of social activities between the incontinent and continent residents. The data highlight the strong association between functional disability and incontinence in the nursing home setting and suggest that a standard functional assessment of toileting skills could make an important contribution to the care of incontinent residents.