Better Care Needed For Adult Incontinence

Adult incontinence in the United Kingdom affects one out of every five adults. That means literally millions of people have this condition and not all of them are receiving proper medical care for it.

Most of those who are simply suffering with incontinence are the elderly who are more likely to be not willing to discuss their condition with anyone including their doctors. However this brings up the question of just what kind of care they are receiving from the medical community. It would appear that because the elderly typically have other medical issues, doctors and their assistants don’t really put a great deal of effort in determining if their older patients have a bladder weakness problem.

When you have a group of people who are reluctant to discuss what they feel is an embarrassing condition and a medical community that doesn’t put any emphasis on that condition, the result will be a portion of the population living with a condition that can be easily treated. With a global population that is living longer this situation could get out of hand.

The answer may simply be one of increased awareness among medical staff. Knowing that incontinence is more common in older patients, doesn’t it make sense for the medical community to get proactive and ask older patients if there is any continence issues in their life instead of waiting for them to volunteer the information? A change in the protocol for the treatment of incontinence in elderly adults could prevent a large number of people from suffering needlessly from this condition.

Adult incontinence is in itself not a disease but a symptom of some underlying cause. Often times that cause is something simple that can be treated easily. But other times those causes can be serious medical conditions that represent a much bigger threat. Including incontinence care in the medical exam routine can help uncover those serious conditions and allow the older patient a better level of medical care.

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