Continence care quality from the perspective of older adults receiving home care services and residents of long-term care: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Urinary incontinence is associated with social isolation, deconditioning, depression, falls and early mortality. It impairs quality of life, even in residents of nursing homes, and, in the community, increases the risk of institutionalisation. Care focused on the preservation of dignity during intimate care is important in the care of older adults. Despite this, there are few data which seek to define the quality of care or desired outcomes of care from the older adult's perspective. This scoping review aims to assess the research literature addressing the question of what is known about the quality of continence care from the perspective of older adults (>65 years old) in long-term care and from those in receipt of home care to identify gaps in the literature and direct further research.

Methods And Analysis: The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) method will be followed. The CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest, PubMed, SCOPUS, PROSPERO, Web of Science and JBI Evidence Synthesis databases will be searched using keywords for publications within the last 20 years without restriction on publication type or language. A search of grey literature and websites will be conducted. Reference lists of the retrieved articles will be used to identify additional literature. A preliminary search of MEDLINE was performed (21 November 2023), to identify articles. Search results will be exported into a management tool for screening and analysis. Article screening will be undertaken by two authors, and a third will be included if needed to resolve any differences. Data analysis will be guided by theoretical frameworks. The protocol for this study was registered at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/bprq9/).

Potential Impact: Information on what constitutes quality of care or desired outcomes of care from the perspective of this segment of the population is lacking. This review will synthesise knowledge and provide research direction. Findings can potentially lead to new directions in the provision of care for vulnerable older adults.

Ethics And Dissemination: Formal ethics approval for a scoping review is not required. The results will be published in a high-impact journal with a focus on open access publication.