Noninvasive techniques to manage urinary incontinence among care-dependent persons.

Approximately half of the nursing home residents in the United States are incontinent of urine, and the prevalence rates among community-dwelling elderly persons are significant. Behavioral treatments are first-line management for most cases of urinary incontinence, and these techniques are recommended in the urinary incontinence guidelines published in 1996 by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. This article emphasizes assessment and treatments for persons in whom urinary incontinence has been detected and who are cognitively or physically impaired that are appropriately performed by nurses with no special expertise in or knowledge of urinary incontinence.