Living with Incontinence
Incontinence and older people
We know loss of bladder control can be distressing. Even the fear of losing control in a public place can cause concern. Commissioned by Help the Aged, this project explored whether or not older people feel socially isolated by their incontinence and what environmental and other factors have most impact. A Report called ‘Incontinence and older people: is there a link to social isolation?’ of the findings produced by Dr Helen Godfrey and Angela Hogg is available in pdf format.
Help the Aged has also launched a booklet entitled Taking Control, which draws on the research undertaken at the BioMed Centre. It sets out their action plans to improve access to public toilets and provision of continence supplies and services.
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| Dr Helen Godfrey & Angela Hogg | |
Living with a long-term catheter, user needs, quality and life and cost
This study, which started in October 2006, is designed to find out from patients and carers what life is like with a long term indwelling catheter. The results of the study will be used to inform device design and health care service provision, and to develop specific tools for measuring issues associated with living with a long term catheter. The first phase of the project, funded by the Wright Bequest, is now complete. This phase involved interviewing patients who have long term catheters to identify issues that affect their daily lives in order to develop a new questionnaire to assess quality of life. The project has follow-on funding through Action Medical Research to fully validate this questionnaire along with a questionnaire related to catheter function, and also to establish the costs of living with a long term catheter. We will be conducting interviews with patients in the coming weeks to ensure the questionnaires are acceptable and understandable, which will be followed by a postal study using the questionnaires to evaluate their ability to measure the concepts of interest. This study will be conducted in collaboration with Dr Mandy Fader (Project Lead), Professor Derick Wade, Dr Heather Gage, Nikki Cotterill and Sarah Fowler . To find out more go to www.action.org.uk/research_projects/grant/287/
If you have any comments or are interested in taking part in this study please contact Nikki Cotterill and Sarah Fowler.
Some of the Action
Medical Research Team