Читать книгу Pathy's Principles and Practice of Geriatric Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 485

Faecal incontinence is under‐reported by sufferers, and as such, it is challenging to collect accurate prevalence data. In a US representative sample of 2229 women and 2079 men, Whitehead and colleges reported a prevalence of faecal incontinence (defined as any involuntary loss of mucous, liquid, or solid stool in the preceding month) of 15.3% in the over‐75 age group.²⁴ In New Zealand, Sharma et al. surveyed 2000 adults by post, with an average age of 51.6: 14.7% of participants ‘felt they had a problem with bowel control’, and 12.4% had faecal incontinence when defined using the Faecal Incontinence Severity Index table as ‘leakage of liquid or solid stool ≥ 1/month’.²⁵ A systematic review in 2016 synthesized 30 trials, reporting a prevalence of monthly FI of 8.3–8.4% in face‐to‐face or telephone interviews and 11.2–12.4% for postal surveys. Age‐stratified data were not reported.²⁶ The prevalence among those living in long‐term care is unsurprisingly higher, with a recent systematic review reporting rates between 10 and 70% using a wide variety of data‐collection tools and case definitions. The median prevalence in all studies was 42%.²⁷ In younger people, the prevalence of faecal incontinence is higher in women, largely driven by obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASIS), but this differential disappears in older age.²⁸ Faecal and urinary incontinence frequently co‐exist, and those presenting with urinary incontinence should be asked specifically about bowel control and faecal incontinence.