Living well with incontinence

If incontinence would be a country, it would be the third largest country in the world.

Caring for someone with incontinence can also be burdensome for the caregivers, regardless of them being family or professional workers. Almost a third of all people that care for an elderly relative, care for a person who has incontinence.²⁵ This condition often becomes a psychological burden on the caregiver, as it takes up their time round the clock.²⁶ The prevalence of incontinence in long-term care facilities is estimated between 50-80%,²⁷ and one of the most common reasons for a person to move to a long-term institutional care²⁸.

Consequently, poorly managed incontinence can have a large impact on both the quality of life of people affected and on societal costs. One Dutch study estimated yearly healthcare costs to 7,402 euro per patient, and societal costs to 3,811 euro per patient.²⁹ The total costs are likely to rise as the number of individuals affected by incontinence increases. Enabling more people to manage their incontinence in a, for them, more suitable way, will both improve the life quality of patients, reduce costs and make better use of caregivers’ time.

Today, we have a better understanding on how to manage incontinence, and what good continence care looks like in order to improve it. The Optimum Continence Service Specification (OCSS) is a modular guide on how to best care for individuals with incontinence, which was developed by a multidisciplinary expert panel and presented to the Global Forum on Incontinence. A recent analysis estimates that implementing the OCSS could lead to significant benefits both for the individual patients and for society. The study looks at the potential effects for The Netherlands and estimates that the costs related to incontinence could be reduced by 31 million euro in the healthcare sector, and a total of 125 million euro in societal expenses over a three-year period. In the future the benefits might even be larger given the ageing population. By 2030, applying the OCSS may lead to savings between 32-75 million euro in healthcare costs, and 182-251 million euro in societal costs over a three-year period, while simultaneously yielding large health benefits in elderly communities (estimated to 2,592-2,618 in Quality-Adjusted Life Years*).³⁰

By 2030, applying the OCSS may lead to savings between 32-75 million euro in healthcare costs, and 182-251 million euro in societal costs over a three-year period.

Several actions must be taken in order to achieve these results. First, we must raise the awareness of incontinence to ensure that more people affected dare to talk about their experience and seek help.³¹ Second, we need to ensure adequate pathways to navigate in the healthcare system, so that incontinence cases can be detected and assessed.³² Third, we must strive for an individualized continence care, where patients’ needs are responded to, and where they can influence the care as well as the solutions to use.