Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence and Its Related Factors among the Rural Residing Elderlies / 農村醫學 地域保健

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to find out the frequency of urinary incontinence among the rural elderly people and its related factors. METHODS: Informations have been obtained through interviews from the 464 rural residents of advanced age over 65 years on September 1st through November 30th, 2007, in Chungnam Province. RESULTS: As for the rate of experiencing urinary incontinence, the group with the experience rate of 'every day' were 9.5% and 'occasionally' 35.5%, with the total of 45.0%. The higher rates of urinary incontinence were in the elderly women(58.5%) than in the elderly men (29.8%), in the more advanced in age, in the higher educated, and in the groups with higher monthly income. Based on life styles, the rate of experiencing urinary incontinence was significantly higher in smoking groups and non-drinking groups. Based on subjective senses of health, it was more highly associated with the groups who reported that they were not healthy, that they concerned themselves about health, that they had physical disability, that they had forgetfulness, and they needed assistance in terms of activity of daily living(ADL) and instrumental activity of daily living(IADL) than their respective counterparts. By the result of multiple logistic regression, sex, age, smoking status, anxiety, physical disability, amnesia, and IADL was indicated the affecting factors to the prevalence of urinary incontinence. CONCLUSIONS: The above results reveal that the rate of urinary incontinence was higher in the elderly women than the elderly men, and in more advanced age. Moreover, its rate increases in the groups with undesirable life styles or lower senses of subjective and physical health conditions. It is highly suggested that efforts to manage urinary incontinence of the elderly need to be narrowed to the more advanced, especially those with lower standards of health conditions.