Urinary incontinence as a marker of higher mortality in patients receiving home care services.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate urinary incontinence (UI) as a predictor of nursing home admission, hospitalization or death in patients receiving home care services.


METHODS
A total of 699 community-dwelling participants receiving home care services in Geneva were evaluated in Autumn 2004 using the Minimal Data Set-Home Care, a validated instrument that includes grading of UI. Data on death, hospitalization and nursing home admission were collected up until June 2007. The impact of UI on time-dependent outcomes was analysed using survival analysis and multivariate regression Cox models to adjust for age, gender, body mass index, cardiac failure, cognitive impairment, delirium, depression, disability, alcohol and tobacco use, self-rated health, faecal incontinence and number of medications.


RESULTS
We found that UI was present in 193 participants (27.8%). After adjustment for confounding factors, UI was associated with a longer length of hospital stay: +36.7 days, (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2-72.3) and a higher mortality rate (hazard ratio [HR] 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1-2.6). The HR for death was 1.5 (95% CI: 0.9-2.5) for participants complaining of one episode of urinary leakage per week at most, 2.0 (95% CI: 1.2-3.5) for those presenting with two or more episodes per week and 4.2 (95% CI: 2.3-7.7; P for trend: <0.001) for daily UI compared with participants without UI. Institutionalization (HR 1.1; 95% CI: 0.6-2.2) and hospitalization rates (HR 1.0; 95% CI: 0.7-1.3) were not different between patients with or without UI.


CONCLUSIONS
In a cohort of patients receiving home care services, UI was a strong predictor of length of hospital stay and mortality, increasing with UI severity.
Department of Internal Medicine, Perineology Unit, Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Geneva, Switzerland.
Gregor
G
John
Eric
E
Gerstel
Michel
M
Jung
Patrick
P
Dällenbach
Daniel
D
Faltin
Véronique
V
Petoud
Catherine
C
Zumwald
Olivier T
OT
Rutschmann
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006699:Home Care Services; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy
death; home care services; hospital admission; mortality; nursing home admission; urinary incontinence