Prevalence of incontinence among older americans.

Objective - This report presents national estimates of incontinence prevalence in the United States using data source-specific definitions of incontinence among persons aged 65 and over by sociodemographic characteristics during 2007-2010. Methods - Data are from the 2007-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities (NSRCF), the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS), and the 2009 Long Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS). Findings are based on in-home interviews with 2,625 noninstitutionalized respondents (NHANES) and reports provided by designated facility or agency staff members for 6,856 residential care facility (RCF) residents (NSRCF), 3,226 current home health care patients (NHHCS), 3,918 hospice discharges (NHHCS), and 2,416,705 nursing home residents (MDS). Response rates for incontinence questions were 84% among noninstitutionalized persons (NHANES), 98% among RCF residents and home health and hospice care patients (NSRCF and NHHCS), and 99% for nursing home residents (MDS). Results - This is the first report presenting national estimates on incontinence for subpopulations of older persons sampled in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics surveys and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Long Term Care Minimum Data Set. Because a different definition of incontinence is used by each data collection system, it is not possible to make data comparisons between them or to summarize results across all surveys. Accordingly, only survey-specific results are presented. Including recent data from all of these data collection systems facilitates a multidimensional picture of incontinence, while underscoring the need for a standardized definition.