[A survey of utilization of urinary alarm systems in nursing homes]

A questionnaire survey was performed on 63 nursing homes and 1006 care workers in the nursing home, in order to elucidate the actual state of utilization of urinary alarm systems (systems). About 3% of the nursing homes in all of Japan are utilizing the system with 12.5% of all institutionalized elderly having a diaper sensor of those nursing homes with the system, 86% use the system continually. In 51% of the nursing homes, care workers change diapers immediately after sensor alarm is triggered. The reasons for not being able to change the diaper immediately were either care workers had other pressing work, or simultaneous or overlapping sensor alarm calls occurred. The usefulness of the system was recognized for "prevention of decubitus" (66%), "prevention of contact dermatitis from diapers" (82%), "decrease of ammonia smell" (27%), and "discontinuation of diaper" (26%). As for problems associated with the system or factors that increase work load, responses included "sensor does not respond sometimes" (67%), "increased diaper changes" (53%), "increased nurse calls due to urinary urgency" (41%), and "disconnection of the sensor by the patient" (34%). The percentage of care workers who reported an increase in work load was 73%, especially where the ratio of care workers number/institutionalized elderly was low.