Summary by Bary Berghmans
Highlighted outcomes from the presented research
In residential aged care facilities, as continence care disrupts the quality and duration of residents’ sleep, individualised assessment should be promoted. Attention should be focused on toileting assistance instead of residents using pads.
Lack of information in elderly patients regarding OAB symptoms leads to delayed medical advice. A more proactive approach in order to get an earlier diagnosis and treatment is needed.
Continence promotion workshops, combining bladder health and self-management education are a potentially effective intervention to enable older women to self-manage their LUTS (maybe also suitable for OAB?) and achieve improved continence condition.
In community-dwelling elderly women with UI, behavioral treatment, when successful, leads to measurable changes in brain function. Subjects refractory to treatment show an entirely different pattern of brain activity, even before treatment, suggesting that they represent a different phenotype. If the relevant neural substrate is identified, more effective interventions may be designed.
Propiverine ER 30 mg once-daily apparently does not cause cognitive dysfunction under real-life conditions in persons> 70 years even if they had mild cognitive impairment at baseline. Significant improvements of the subjective perception of their bladder condition and number of pads/24 h were reported to occur. PVR remained unchanged during treatment with propiverine.
Strong desire to void affects the pattern and rhythmicity of walking (slower, variability of length, speed steps) suggesting a relationship between higher centre control of bladder function and control of gait.