[Prevalence of urinary and faecal incontinence among community-dwelling elderly patients in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, January 1999-July 2001].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prevalence of urinary, faecal and double incontinence in community-dwelling elderly patients.


METHODS
Cross-sectional population-based survey.


METHODS
By means of a postal questionnaire, data were collected in the period January 1999-July 2001 from patients aged 60 and over from 9 general practices associated with the academic general practitioner registration network of the St Radboud University Medical Centre (the Nijmegen Monitoring Project). Excluded were patients living in a home for the elderly, as well as patients with dementia, patients who were too ill to participate and patients with a catheter.


RESULTS
Of the 5278 patients who received a questionnaire, 4650 (88%) returned it. 885 (19%) respondents had involuntary loss of urine twice a month or more, 299 (6%) had involuntary loss of faeces and 153 (3%) had both. The prevalence of urinary, faecal and double incontinence increased with age in both men and women, in men especially in the age group > 80 years. Urinary incontinence was more prevalent in women (29%) than in men (9%). The prevalence of faecal incontinence showed no sex differences (women: 6%; men: 7%), but the loss of slimy faeces occurred twice as often in men as in women (60% versus 29%). Double incontinence was also more or less equally prevalent in men and women (men: 2%; women: 4%), except in the age group 65-74 years (men: 1%; women: 4%).


CONCLUSIONS
Especially urinary, but also faecal incontinence was common in the community-dwelling elderly. The prevalence increased with age. Because of ageing of the population and the increasing life expectancy in the next decennia, the prevalence of incontinence can be expected to increase considerably.
Teunissen
T A M
TA
Universitair Medisch Centrum St Radboud, afd. Huisartsgeneeskunde, HAG 117, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen. d.teunissen@hag.umcn.nl
van den Bosch
W J H M
WJ
van den Hoogen
H J M
HJ
Largo-Janssen
A L M
AL
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*