A Survey of Incontinence in Elderly Hospital Patients

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A survey is described of 522 patients shows that 43% of these patients were incontinent. The incidence of incontinence was almost independent of the age and sex of the patients and of their duration of stay in hospital. Incontinence occurred most often in patients who were unable to walk, to dress themselves and to feed themselves. This symptom was common in patients with focal lesions of the brain and with arteriosclerotic and senile dementia, but uncommon in patients with all other diagnoses. There was a very close relationship between the performance of the patients on a test of mental impairment and the occurrence and severity of incontinence. The term "senile incontinence" should be abandoned, since incontinence occurs largely in association with severe organic disease rather then with old age.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: