Urinary incontinence in the geriatric population of an acute care hospital

To determine the incidence, prevalence, and duration of urinary incontinence, a survey was undertaken of all patients aged 65 and over admitted to a university hospital during a six-week period. The daily prevalence of incontinence, which was 19 per cent for the entire study population, was highly variable from one nursing unit to another. Twenty-five per cent of those on the acute care general medical units and 17 per cent of those on the general surgical units were incontinent on any given day. The burn unit had the highest daily prevalence of incontinence (75 per cent). The incidence of incontinence per hospital stay, which was determined for the 315 patients who were followed from admission to discharge, was 19 per cent. Of the 348 patients discharged to home during the survey period, 10.9 per cent were incontinent within the 24 hours prior to leaving the hospital, and, of the 27 referred to another institution, 48 per cent had been incontinent during that interval. The authors conclude that a substantial proportion of geriatric patients are incontinent at some stage during their hospital stays.