• Home
  • Geriatrics Blog
    • Helping Older Parents Posts
  • Helping Older Parents
  • Podcast
    • Helping Older Parents Podcast
    • Better Health While Aging Podcast
  • Testimonials
  • About
    • About Better Health While Aging
    • About Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH
  • Courses & More

Better Health While Aging

Practical information for aging health & family caregivers

  • Getting Started
    • Why Geriatrics
    • Are you a caregiver?
    • How to use this site
  • Popular Topics
    • Preventing Falls in Aging Adults
    • Medication Safety
    • Dementia, including Alzheimer’s
    • Advance Care Planning & End-of-Life

Urinary Incontinence in Aging:
What to know when you can’t wait to go

by Nicole Didyk, MD 24 Comments

“I know where every bathroom is at the mall, and my wife rolls her eyes every time I have to visit one when we just arrived – even after I went before leaving the house!  What can I expect?  Most old guys are in the same boat!”

If you opened this article, you probably relate to the quote above, and you’re not unlike millions of other older adults.

Incontinence doesn’t always mean wetting yourself. It can involve urgent needs to use the toilet, frequent bathroom trips, or losing tiny amounts of urine with certain activities. 

Incontinence is more than inconvenient; it can be life-altering, leading to early retirement or social withdrawal, depression, and loss of independent function. Important incontinence stats include:

  • 1 in 3 older women and 1 in 12 older men have lower urinary tract symptoms that can include incontinence
  • Urinary incontinence cost the US economy $66 billion in 2012
  • 6-10% of nursing home admissions are due to urinary incontinence
  • Only 22% of men with urinary incontinence seek help for the problem, as compared to 45% of women

For this reason, in geriatrics, we often ask our patients about incontinence.

A while back I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Adrian Wagg, a Geriatrician-Internist and international expert in urinary incontinence.  You can listen to this interview, and find out how to download a transcript of it here.   In this article, I’ll share some of his insights about the management of incontinence in older adults, and why it remains undertreated too often.

In particular, I’ll cover:

  • How urinary function changes with age
  • Types and causes of urinary incontinence in both men and women
  • What to do if you’re experiencing urinary incontinence and want help
  • How to help manage urinary incontinence in an older person you’re caring for

What happens to the Urinary System with Aging?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog Tagged With: incontinence, overactive bladder, prostate, urinary incontinence, UTI

Q&A: How to Prevent, Detect, & Treat Dehydration in Aging Adults

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 74 Comments

Q: How can we get my older mother to drink more water? She is susceptible to urinary tract infections and seems to be often dehydrated no matter what we do. We were also wondering if coffee and tea are okay, or should they be avoided to reduce dehydration?

A: Dehydration is indeed an important problem for older adults. It can be common even when it’s not hot outside.

Helping an older person increase her fluid intake, as you’re trying to do, is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of dehydration.

Now how to actually do this? Studies — and practical experience — suggest that the best approaches include: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles, Q&A Tagged With: dehydration, UTI

UTIs and Urine Bacteria in Aging:
How to get the right diagnosis & avoid unneeded antibiotics

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 200 Comments

Depositphotos_40397787_m-2015-urine-testing-compressorQ: An older friend, who is in her 90s, has been having bacteria in her urine, but no symptoms. Despite treatment with antibiotics, she was still having bacteria in the urine, so the doctor recommended chronic antibiotics and a referral to urology.

What can be done when an elderly woman has bacteria in her urine but no symptoms? Can a urology consultation help?

A: This is a great question. You are describing something called asymptomatic bacteriuria, which means having urine bacteria without symptoms.

Every older person and family caregiver should know about asymptomatic bacteriuria. Here’s why:

  • It’s very common in older adults. This condition is found in an estimated 20% of women aged 80 or older, and also affects older men. The older the person, the more common it is.
  • It’s often confused with a urinary tract infection (UTI).  This can lead to unnecessary — and potentially harmful — treatment with antibiotics.
  • It usually does NOT need to be treated with antibiotics. As I’ll explain below, research shows that people don’t live better or longer when asymptomatic bacteriuria is treated. In fact, such treatment can be harmful: one study found that treatment increased the risk of future (real) UTIs, and increased the risk of infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles, Q&A Tagged With: UTI

Yours Free: The Quick Start Guide to Checking Older Parents for Health & Safety Problems

Action Plan - Pencil and Checklist

Enter your email to download this free Quick Start Guide

Get The Guide Now »

No spam ever! We collect, use and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.

Find It Here

Disclaimer

The material on this site, including any exchanges in the comments section of the blog, is for informational and educational purposes only.

Any comments Dr. Kernisan may make regarding an individual’s story or comments should not be construed as establishing a physician-patient relationship between Dr. Kernisan and a caregiver, or care recipient.

None of Dr. Kernisan’s website or group information should be considered a substitute for individualized medical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment.

Please see the full Disclaimer for more information.

Please also carefully read our Terms & Conditions of Use, before using this site.

Creative Commons License
This work by Leslie Kernisan MD & Better Health While Aging LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at BetterHealthWhileAging.net.

Privacy Policy & Disclosures

Your privacy is very important to us. Your information will never be sold to anyone, whether you browse the site, sign up for email updates, or register for an event.

Pleae read our complete Privacy Policy for more information and for Dr. Kernisan's financial disclosures.

© 2023 Better Health While Aging, LLC · Terms & Conditions · Disclaimer · Privacy Policy · Contact Us