Severity of urinary incontinence of nursing home residents correlates with malnutrition, dementia and loss of mobility.

Introduction: The prevalence of urinary incontinence increases with age. Especially in nursing homes people often do not only suffer from incontinence, in addition they present comorbidities, i.e. dementia or loss of mobility. In this study we assessed the severity of urinary incontinence and comorbidities of nursing home residents.

Methods: We included 81 residents of nursing homes who underwent recordings of medical history, physical examination and ultrasound diagnostic of the urinary tract. Grading of urinary incontinence was assessed by the amount of pads used daily. Severity of immobility, dementia and malnutrition was assessed. Further examinations were urinalysis by dip stick and microbiological testing, geriatric depression scale, and QLQ-C30.

Results: We found incontinence at different degrees present at 67/81 (83%) of nursing home residents. We could show, that more severe incontinence correlated with worse nutritional status (r = 0.53, p < 0.0001), increase in demential symptoms (r = 0.37, p = 0.0012) and worse mobility r = 0.71, p < 0.0001). There was no correlation for the severity of urinary incontinence with the prevalence of diabetes, intake of diuretics or the presence of urinary tract infections.

Conclusions: Worsening of nutritional status, cognitive function and mobility not only correlate with the prevalence but also with the severity of urinary incontinence.