Research Project
6737114
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Clinical practice guidelines recommend implementation of nighttime incontinence care that minimizes sleep disruption for nursing home residents. However, these guidelines offer no specific intervention recommendations. Investigators propose a method to individualize incontinence care in the nighttime nursing home (NH) environment and seek to determine the feasibility of implementing this method. This will be accomplished through a clinical study in a NH using a pre and post intervention design where the intervention is the provision of incontinence care according to incontinence feedback data to NH staff using the incontinence care quality control (ICQC) system. Incontinence care during usual care (baseline, pre-intervention) will be compared to incontinence care during the intervention (use of the ICQC system). Response time to continence care, time required to provide incontinence care, and diaper changing frequency will be the major outcome measures. The Phase I goals are to: 1) demonstrate that providing ICQC data to NH staff results in more individualized incontinence care for NH residents, 2) document the staff resources necessary to implement the ICQC system, 3) document the costs of implementing the system, and 4) document family/resident willingness to pay for the system. The ICQC system electronically detects incontinence episodes, documents the resident's voiding patterns over time, and notifies NH staff of incontinence care needs. The majority of the technology has been previously developed with NIH funds. Minor modifications will be needed to adapt the existing system to the ICQC application. The utility of the ICQC system features (assessment and caregiver notification) in a daytime quality assessment and assurance program will be the focus of a Phase II study. The long- term goal of this research is to assess the efficacy of the ICQC to improve incontinence care in daytime and nighttime NH environments. Manufacturers of adult diapers with established distribution and marketing networks within the nursing home industry are likely partners for disseminating the proposed technology. The size, cost, and disposable nature of the wireless sensors facilitate their incorporation into the fabrication process.
