Paper: Prevalence and Impact on Life for Different Type Bowel Elimination Problems among Taiwan Community Elders (19th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Thursday, 10 July 2008: 8:30 AM

Hsing-Yi Yu, RN , School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Department of Nursing, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine. Nursing and Management;, Miaoli city, Taiwan

Shu Yu, PhD, RN , School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

Ming-Chen Yeh, MSN, RN , Department and Institute of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taichung433, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: understand the prevalence of different type bowel elimination problems and compare their impact on life

Learning Objective 2: become aware of different type bowel elimination problems and their impact on life

BACKGROUND: Bowel elimination problems in old age are not only annoying distress, but also decrease their quality of life. However, most studies focus on constipation of the elderly and disregard of other bowel elimination problems ex: diarrhea, incontinence, fecal impaction. OBJECTIVE : The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of different type bowel elimination problems in Taiwan community elderly and compare their impact on life. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 507 community elders selected by a random sampling method and interviewed face-to-face in this cross-sectional study. RESULTS: The main findings included (1) 27.2% elderly were suffered from bowel elimination problems. Among these problems, constipation had the highest prevalence (16.4%). However, there were still 5.5% of the elderly had mixed type bowel elimination problem (combined constipation with diarrhea) and 5.3% of the elderly had diarrhea. (2) The impact of bowel elimination problem on life was not so high (mean=38.06±8.25, range=32-69). As to the impact of different types of bowel elimination problems, mixed type had the highest effect on total life (mean=44.39) and all of dimensions including physical, psychology and social. While constipation affect second (mean=36.7). (3)The analysis of stepwise multiple regression indicated that 23.9% of the variance in the scores of impact on life was explained by subjective general health, had operated, life stress, age, had urinary problem, got disease. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that constipation, diarrhea, and mixed type bowel elimination problem seem frequently in Taiwan community elderly. Mixed type had the highest impact on life. Health professionals should pay attention to effectively assess and manage bowel elimination problems especially for the elderly who had mixed type bowel elimination problem.

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