A profile of disordered micturition in the elderly at home.

A prevalence survey of disturbed micturition in the elderly identified 7% with important degrees of disorder, 1% with lesser disorder and 1% who were catheterized. Incontinence, urgency, frequency and nocturia were the symptoms most commonly reported. Fifty-three per cent of people describing incontinence used preventive aids but one third of these continued to experience wetting of external clothing. Crude categorization of dysfunction on the basis of symptoms suggested that a component of unstable bladder was present in approximately 4% of the elderly population.