Fecal (FI), urinary (UI), and double incontinence (DI) are debilitating health conditions, yet most prevalence estimates rely on survey-based, patient-reported data. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of incontinence disorders among community-dwelling adult patients using electronic health record (EHR) data. Specifically, we quantified outpatient encounters for FI, UI, and DI overall and by race, ethnicity, and age, and estimated total outpatient encounters for any incontinence diagnosis. A retrospective observational design was used to analyze data extracted from a proprietary EHR via an open-source clinical data warehousing and analytics platform. The study population included adult patients receiving care across 210 outpatient clinics in the state of XXX between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2023. Incontinence treatment encounters were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. FI and UI were defined by diagnosis codes, while DI was defined as encounters with both FI and one or more UI codes during the study period. The period prevalence of any incontinence diagnosis in outpatient encounters was 2.67%. UI prevalence (2.20%) exceeded that of FI (0.34%) and DI (0.14%). Females had higher prevalence across all incontinence types; however, males with incontinence were older on average (66.64 years) than females (63.40 years). FI prevalence was highest among White patients (0.40%), UI prevalence was highest among American Indian/Alaska Native patients (3.16%), and DI prevalence was highest among White patients (0.17%). Mean age was greatest for DI (66.42 years), followed by FI (65.22 years) and UI (64.06 years). EHR data provide contemporary prevalence estimates of FI, UI, and DI among community-dwelling adults and offer a valuable complement to self-reported data for understanding incontinence treatment patterns.
Alexander et al. (Sun,) studied this question.