Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Incontinence is a major problem for older people and their carers. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) includes a large number of reviews on incontinence which could be of great value in directing appropriate evidence-based interventions for older people with this problem.
Objectives: To establish whether the evidence on management of incontinence in the CDSR is generalisable to older people.
Methods: All systematic reviews issued through the Cochrane Incontinence Group (2006, Issue 1) were read for content applicability to care for older people. The age characteristics of participants in the trials included in these reviews were gathered. Our primary outcome was the number and proportion of trials that stated inclusion of participants >65 years old.
Results: A search of the titles in the Cochrane Incontinence Group from the CDSR 2006 Issue 1 lists 47 titles; eight (17.0%) referring exclusively to children were excluded from further analysis. Interventions could be divided into the following categories. Surgical/ invasive 12/39(30.8%), physical therapies and voiding strategies 11/39(28.2%), drug therapies 6/39(15.4%), containment measures 2/39(5.1%), incontinence secondary to specific disease processes 2/39(5.1%). The 39 remaining reviews included a total of 447 trials. Data referring to mean, median or range of age were reported for 187/447(41.8%) trials. An age range was stated for 105 trials of which 81(77.1%) included participants >65 years. A mean or median age was stated for 156 trials of which 38(24.4%) were >65 years. This represents 8.5%(38/447) of the total number of trials cited. None of the review titles referred specifically to elderly people.
Conclusions: Incontinence is a major problem for older people however few trials of interventions to manage incontinence target this group. Age data for trials included in Cochrane reviews on incontinence are reported inconsistently. These factors make it difficult to apply the results of Cochrane reviews to the care of older people with incontinence.
Objectives: To establish whether the evidence on management of incontinence in the CDSR is generalisable to older people.
Methods: All systematic reviews issued through the Cochrane Incontinence Group (2006, Issue 1) were read for content applicability to care for older people. The age characteristics of participants in the trials included in these reviews were gathered. Our primary outcome was the number and proportion of trials that stated inclusion of participants >65 years old.
Results: A search of the titles in the Cochrane Incontinence Group from the CDSR 2006 Issue 1 lists 47 titles; eight (17.0%) referring exclusively to children were excluded from further analysis. Interventions could be divided into the following categories. Surgical/ invasive 12/39(30.8%), physical therapies and voiding strategies 11/39(28.2%), drug therapies 6/39(15.4%), containment measures 2/39(5.1%), incontinence secondary to specific disease processes 2/39(5.1%). The 39 remaining reviews included a total of 447 trials. Data referring to mean, median or range of age were reported for 187/447(41.8%) trials. An age range was stated for 105 trials of which 81(77.1%) included participants >65 years. A mean or median age was stated for 156 trials of which 38(24.4%) were >65 years. This represents 8.5%(38/447) of the total number of trials cited. None of the review titles referred specifically to elderly people.
Conclusions: Incontinence is a major problem for older people however few trials of interventions to manage incontinence target this group. Age data for trials included in Cochrane reviews on incontinence are reported inconsistently. These factors make it difficult to apply the results of Cochrane reviews to the care of older people with incontinence.