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Prevalence of fecal incontinence and associated risk factors in elderly outpatients: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Background

Data on the prevalence of fecal incontinence in elderly patients admitted to outpatient clinics in Turkey are scarce.

Aims

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of fecal incontinence and the associated risk factors in the elderly outpatients.

Methods

Patients 60 years and older admitted to a geriatrics outpatient clinic between October 2013 and March 2014 were included. Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, marital status, educational status, parity (for females), fecal incontinence (FI), urinary incontinence (UI), constipation, comorbid conditions, and medications were recorded. FI assessment was based on the Fecal Incontinence Severity Index (FISI).

Results

A total of 364 patients (64.8% female, n = 236) with a mean age of 73.2 ± 8.1 years were enrolled in the study. The prevalence of FI was 9.9% (10.2% female, 9.4% male). UI was 42.6%. Co-occurrence of FI and UI was 7.4%. According to the FISI, the most frequent type of defecation was liquid stool (61.1%). While the predictive factors for FI were polypharmacy (standardized coefficient, [r] = 0.203, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.009–0.040, p = 0.002), UI (r = 0.134, 95% CI = 0.006–0.156, p = 0.035), and being married (r = 0.200, 95% CI = −0.088 to −0.020, p = 0.002) in females, those were UI (r = 0.306, 95% CI = 0.093–0.309, p < 0.001) and polypharmacy (r = 0.251, 95% CI = 0.009–0.043, p = 0.003) in males.

Conclusions

In both genders, urinary incontinence and polypharmacy seem to be the most important risk factors for fecal incontinence. Fecal incontinence should be questioned in detail and evaluated using FISI in elderly outpatients.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to internal medicine residents Serdar Sahin, MD, and Zulal Celik, MD, for their contribution in data entry into digital format.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpasa School of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Nurhan Demir, Kadri Atay, Ibrahim Hatemi & Ahmet Dobrucalı

  2. Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpasa School of Medicine, Istanbul University, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mehmet Yuruyen, Hakan Yavuzer, Alper Doventas & Deniz Suna Erdincler

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  1. Nurhan Demir
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  2. Mehmet Yuruyen
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  3. Kadri Atay
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Correspondence to Mehmet Yuruyen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Demir, N., Yuruyen, M., Atay, K. et al. Prevalence of fecal incontinence and associated risk factors in elderly outpatients: a cross-sectional study. Aging Clin Exp Res 29, 1165–1171 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0723-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0723-x

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