Fecal incontinence is an important and a frequently faced problem for the elderly especially who live  in nursing homes. Uptodate,  its prevalence among the elderly residents  living in the nursing homes of Istanbul is not studied. We aimed to determine the prevalance  of fecal incontinence  and its effect on quality of life of the elderly in Istanbul.

Our research is a population-based cross-sectional study that was carried out in a sample of a total of 283 elderly residents living  in six  nursing homes within the city of Istanbul belonging to the Directorate of Disable and Elderly Facilities  Services which are under the rule of Ministry of Family work and Social services between the dates of January 2015-April 2015 after getting approval from the Ethics Committee of Acibadem University.  After sample size for the residents was calculated, these 6 six nursing homes were selected randomly out of all nursing homes of the Istanbul city (including both private and public nursing homes from both european and asian sites of Istanbul) .
Inclusion criteria were;
1) Older than 65 years old
2) Who accept and sign the 'informed consent' for the study
3) Able to make verbal communication,
4) Able to hear
5) Able to understand the phrases of the survey
6) Able to answer the questions of the survey
7) Having no physical or mental disability
8) Being not bedridden 
 Data was collected from the residents via face-to-face survey . Surveys used were  “Sociodemographic and bowel habit data form” and  “Turkish Adaptation of Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQOLS) and Fecal Incontinence Severity Index (FISI)” .FIQOLS and FISI  were both determined as reliable and valid indexes in turkish language.
“Sociodemographic and bowel habit data form” included 27 questions about age, gender, marital - education - general health status of the resident , facilities  (toilet in room, presence of roommate, extra food serving service) about the nursing home and  presence of any type fecal incontinence and its risk factors.
FIQOLS included questions about 4 domains; life style, behaviour/coping, depression/self-perception and embarrassment. 
FISI included questions about the type of the incontinent material and its frequency.
First sociodemographic and bowel habit ' surveys were given to the resident. İf fecal incontinence was observed, then the resident answered  FIQOLS and FISI.
Statistical calculations were done by using SPSS 17 to calculate the means, percentages, via chi-square, Man Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis tests.

Total of 721 residents are interviewed and only 283 residents were found eligible for the study. Number of residents from private versus public nursing homes were nearly equal. 
13.5% of elderly in nursing homes  stated fecal incontinence. 
The scores of the domains of the residents' FIQOLS and FISI are ;  
life style :3.2± 0.55 (normal: 21.4 ±6.6)
depression/self perception:3.2 ± 0.49 ( normal: 15.3 ± 3.4)
mbrassment: 3.26±  0.49 ( normal: 5.8 ± 1.9) and 
competence/behavior: 2.74 ±0.65 (normal: 17.0 ± 4.9)
FISI: 14.69 ± 3.17 (normal: 31.70 ± 12.80)
All scores were found to be lower than normal.
 Significant correlation was found between the FISI and   FIQOLQ's domains depression/self perception (r=-0.8 p<0.05) and embrassment  (r=-0.9 p<0.05).

Prevalance of fecal incontinence in elderly living in nursing homes of Istanbul is  found as 13.5% .
In elderly population,  fecal incontinence has negative effect on their  mental health and quality of life.

Independently from the severity of fecal incontinence type and prevalance, it is necessary to support to the elderly for their feeling well in physical, social, hygenic and psyhologic means in nursing homes.These findings are important for staff in nursing homes inorder to provide best treatment and care for residents having fecal incontinence.

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