How to choose: nurses' judgements of the effectiveness of a range of currently marketed continence aids

Abstract

Continence is a costly health problem, both in terms of financial burden in continence aids, but also in terms of quality-of-life issues for the person who has continence problems. Manufacturers are often perturbed as to why products specially designed to help continence problems are not popular, or do not appear to be applied as intended. This paper reports on a study involving a quantitative evaluation of a range of continence aids presently being marketed, as applied in a large elderly care centre. The evaluation used nursing judgements on a series of comfort and effectiveness criteria: amount of leakage around the pad, comfort to the client when the pad was either wet or dry, skin integrity and snugness of fit, as well as whether the pad concealed well beneath clothing. Five body pads were evaluated--two disposable and three washable--and three bed under-sheets. Effectiveness of pads was found to vary substantially according to sex of client and voiding type, that is whether the client had heavy or moderate incontinent episodes.