A prospective study of the incidence of urinary incontinence in an acute care teaching hospital and its implications on future service development.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the incidence of urinary incontinence and indwelling catheter use.


METHODS
A prospective study of 627 consecutive admissions to an acute care teaching hospital over a 4-week period.


RESULTS
At least one episode of urinary incontinence was experienced by 145 patients (23.4 per cent of all admissions) with 28 per cent of these having urinary incontinence lasting more than 10 days. Patients with urinary incontinence had a significantly greater age, mean length of stay and overall mortality compared with the total hospital inpatient population. During this survey, 7 per cent of all inpatients suffered from at least one episode of faecal incontinence, with the mean duration of faecal incontinence being 5.4 days. The major discriminating findings were from the data of patients with urinary incontinence for longer than 10 days. These patients had a longer length of stay (47 days compared with 17 days for patients with urinary incontinence 10 days) and poorer outcome (28 per cent went to nursing homes and 50% returned home compared with 7 per cent and 81 per cent respectively for pts with incontinence less than 10 days). Patients on medical wards and those with confusion or poor mobility fared disproportionately worse. After 10 days of incontinence, only 59 per cent of these patients had a rectal examination; and 90 per cent a urine specimen for culture. The interpretation and implication of these findings will be discussed particularly as it related to future planning for continence services and the development of clinical nurses with knowledge of urinary incontinence.
Fonda
D
D
Aged and Extended Care Department (AECD), Repatriation General Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria.
Nickless
R
R
Roth
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014739:Victoria