Urinary Incontinence in Older Adults: Impact on Caregiver Burden

Abstract

The objective of the current descriptive, cross-sectional, and relationship-seeking study was to evaluate the severity of urinary incontinence (UI) in older adults and its impact on care burden of their family caregivers. This study was performed prospectively with 80 older adults (aged ≥65 years) with UI and their family caregivers who attended a urology clinic between June and December 2021. UI was assessed using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF), and caregiver burden using the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Increase in care time was associated with higher burden of care ( p = 0.018). Post-hoc analyses suggested that caregivers' burden of care gradually increased up to the first 9 months. Daily care time >9 hours had a higher burden compared to care times <9 hours ( p < 0.001). Mean ZBI score of caregivers was 41.47 ( SD = 10.18) and mean ICIQ-UI-SF score of older adults was 15.02 ( SD = 3.9). A significant correlation was observed between increased ICIQ-UI-SF scores of older adults and ZBI scores of caregivers ( r = 0.354, p = 0.001). Caring for older adults with UI is associated with a significant burden of care and an increase in severity of UI is associated with increased burden of care. Female sex, lower educational level, presence of comorbidities, increased care time, and daily care hours were factors associated with increased burden of care among caregivers. [ Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 49 (4), 39–46.]