THE QUALITY-OF-LIFE OF OLDER ADULTS WITH URINARY-INCONTINENCE - DETERMINING GENERIC AND CONDITION-SPECIFIC PREDICTORS

Urinary incontinence (UI) is an unpleasant problem for many adults. Th is study determined the importance of demographic, health and incontin ence variables for the generic and incontinence-specific quality of li fe (QoL) of older adults (age greater than or equal to 60 years). Tele phone surveys of adults reporting at least weekly episodes of UI (n = 435) were conducted as part of a randomized, controlled trial. Logisti c regression analyses showed that the predictors of generic and incont inence-specific QoL differed. Life satisfaction, a generic outcome, wa s predicted by education, the number of days in bed due to health prob lems, the number of days not feeling well and the amount of urine lost . Generic health was related to education, the number of days sick in the previous 30 days and the number of days health issues restricted a ctivities. The incontinence-specific QoL outcomes were predicted by ag e, mobility difficulties, the amount of urine lost, the frequency of U I, and the number of daytime and night-time voids. The specific QoL me asures provide a different profile of those most affected in this samp le than that obtained by the generic measures. The most affected are y ounger persons with severe urine loss. Older persons may have other co nditions impinging on QoL and may have adapted behaviourally and psych ologically to urine loss. (C) 1998 Lippincott-Raven Publishers.