The following recent studies offer an understanding of how providing alternative treatment methods, such as the Incontovac, can help to enhance the quality of life, health and dignity of those suffering from urinary incontinence.
Urinary incontinence in elderly nursing home patients. Ouslander JG, Kane RL, Abrass IB.
Among elderly nursing home patients, urinary incontinence is a prevalent and costly condition. In seven nursing homes studied, 419 (50%) of the elderly patients were incontinence of urine. Most had been incontinent at admission (64%), had more than one incontinent episode per day or a catheter (72%), and had concomitant fecal incontinence (64%). The majority of incontinent patients had substantial cognitive impairment and limitations in mobility. The severity of these impairments was related to the extent of incontinence.Complications such as urinary tract infection and skin breakdown occurred in almost 45% and were more common in patients with catheters.Physicians recorded incontinence as a problem, or any efforts to evaluate it, in the nursing home records of less than 15% of these patients.
PMID: 7109138 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Evaluation of urinary catheterization and urinary incontinence in a general nursing home population.
The medical records of 412 residents of three southeastern Massachusetts nursing homes were reviewed to examine the frequency and medical management of urinary incontinence and the indications for chronic urinary catheterization. The mean age of the patients was 84.1 years. In this study 9.7% of the patients were managed with a urinary catheter, while an indication for catheterization was recorded in the medical records of only 27.5% of these patients. Half of the noncatheterized nursing home patients were transiently or permanently incontinent of urine, but were not catheterized. Incontinent patients without catheters were more likely to require assistance in toileting (75.5 v 26.1%) or to have bacteriuria (60.1 v 26.1%) than continent patients. Despite the frequency of urinary incontinence, this problem was included in the medical problem list of less than 5% of the incontinent nursing home patients. The authors conclude that urinary incontinence is a frequent medical problem in the nursing home population, but it is rarely recorded and evaluated as a medical problem. Furthermore, indications for urinary catheterization frequently are also not recorded. An explanation for this practice was not determined, but possibilities include a lack of physician knowledge of the evaluation and management of incontinence and a nonaggressive approach to such patients, given their other medical problems.
PMID: 4008846 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Management of urinary incontinence in Veterans Administration nursing homes. Ouslander JG, Fowler E.
Nursing Home Care Units in Veterans Administration Medical Centers across the country were surveyed to determine methods of management of urinary incontinence (UI) in the nursing home (NH) setting. Information was obtained from 90 of the VA NHs on demographic aspects of the NH population, prevalence and severity of urinary and fecal incontinence, common problems encountered, and specific strategies and techniques. Written guidelines for bladder training and catheter care from many of the NHs were analyzed. The results of the survey reinforce the need for research designed to improve the care of the incontinent NH patient.
PMID: 3917465 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]