Prevalence of Incontinence Among Older Americans

A new report presents national estimates of incontinence prevalence in the United States using data source-specific definitions of incontinence among persons aged 65 and over by sociodemographic characteristics during 2007–2010.

This first-time report presents national estimates on incontinence for subpopulations of older persons sampled in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics surveys and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Long Term Care Minimum Data Set. Because a different definition of incontinence is used by each data collection system, it is not possible to make data comparisons between them or to summarize results across all surveys. Accordingly, only survey-specific results are presented. Including recent data from all of these data collection systems facilitates a multidimensional picture of incontinence, while underscoring the need for a standardized definition.