Male urinary incontinence and dementia in Zaria, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Ageing population in all parts of the world has make dementia in the elderly an important public health issue. Behavioural and Psychological symptom of dementia like urinary incontinence seldom attract the attention of clinicians providing care for the elderly. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of dementia among elderly male patients presenting with urinary incontinence to a urology clinic. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We recruited consecutive elderly patients and their caregivers presenting to the urology clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital for the treatment of urinary incontinence. The patients were assessed using Socio-demographic data collecting sheet, Consortium to Establish Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), Stick Design Test and physical examination. While the caregivers were interviewed using the Blessed Dementia Scale. A consensus diagnosis was made for each of the patients based on criteria for dementia in both Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th edition (DSM-IV) and International Classification for Diseases 10 edition( ICD-10). All test of statistics were carried out at 5%level of probability. RESULTS: A total of 121 patients participated in the study. The mean age of the patients was 70.58 ± 5.47 years (95% CI=69.10-71.55). A total of 11 patients (9.10%, 95% CI=3.98-14.22) have dementia based on the consensus diagnosis. Dementia among this cohort is significantly associated with advancing age and enuresis. CONCLUSION: Dementia is common among elderly patients with urinary incontinence in Africa but remains large undetected and unrecognised.