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Fecal incontinence significantly reduced quality of life in elderly patients with GI symptoms

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SAN DIEGO — Lower gastrointestinal symptoms are common among ambulatory elderly patients, and the presence of fecal incontinence significantly affected the quality of life associated with their conditions, according to data presented at the 2012 Digestive Disease Week Annual Meeting.

Researchers administered a survey to 242 ambulatory patients aged 60 to 94 years who had presented at a primary care geriatric facility between November 2009 and March 2010 on an outpatient basis. Questions covered topics including demographics, IBS symptoms and quality of life (IBS-QOL), and fecal incontinence (FI) quality of life (QOL).

Among the participants, 38% reported lower GI symptoms, with 32% indicating chronic constipation, 42% reporting FI, 12% reporting both symptoms, and 1% indicating diarrhea. The Rome III IBS criteria were met by 11% of participants, all of which exhibited IBS with constipation, and 48% of these patients had accompanying FI.

Patients with both chronic constipation and FI reported significantly lower IBS-QOL scores than patients with constipation alone (89.7±10.7 vs. 80.0±13.0, P=.004), and investigators also observed a lower FI-QOL among these patients than among those with FI alone (mean FI-QOL score 3.59±0.35 vs. 3.22±0.54, P=.096). Participants with both IBS and FI reported a lower IBS-QOL than patients with both IBS alone (P=.015) and FI alone (P=.032).

“There is a higher prevalence of lower GI conditions in the elderly population than has been previously reported,” researcher Courtney Ferch, MD, told Healio.com, “and quality of life, particularly in patients with [FI], is impacted. … It’s been shown that screening, especially for FI, can improve quality of life in these patients if [the condition] is detected, but often it’s not found because of patient embarrassment or clinicians not asking.”

For more information:

• Ferch C. #Mo1969: The Prevalence and Impact of Lower Gastrointestinal Symptoms in an Ambulatory Elderly Outpatient Population. Presented at: the 2012 Digestive Disease Week Annual Meeting; May 19-22, 2012; San Diego.