Incidence and correlates of incontinence in stroke patients.
The incidence of incontinence in a series of 135 consecutive stroke patients was 51% (urine) and 23% (feces) within one year. In 75% the urinary incontinence started within the first two weeks, and in 41% it had cleared during that time. Incontinence at onset is associated with measures of severity of stroke (and of immobility for fecal incontinence). Among 92 survivors at one year, 15% were incontinent of urine, a proportion that rose in two- and three-year survivors to 23 to 24%, but by four years was again 14%, a level similar to that of the general elderly population. It is concluded that incontinence is more commonly a by-product of immobility and dependency than of involvement of the neurologic pathways, and most of it is transient.
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000209:etiology*