title: Prevalence and detection of urinary incontinence among older Medicaid recipients.
abstract: Low-income older adults have higher rates of many medical disorders than those with higher income, but rates of urinary incontinence have not been examined in this population. A random sample of older Medicaid recipients was interviewed (n=910) and medical records examined for the subset with urinary incontinence (n=236). Nursing home residents were randomly selected from Medicaid enrollment files (n=480). Forty-two percent of community residents reported urinary incontinence, with higher rates among women, older respondents, and whites. The medical records for only 22% of community-dwellers contained a diagnosis of urinary incontinence, compared with 77% for nursing home residents. Type of urinary incontinence was specified for 65% of diagnosed community dwellers and 7% of diagnosed nursing home residents. Urinary incontinence rates are high among Medicaid recipients compared with estimates from general population studies, but detection rates are lower for community-dwellers. Physicians may need to do more among low-income older adults in order to detect urinary incontinence.
authors.affiliation: St. Paul College, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Adelmann
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data