Study findings reveal that there are various advantages and disadvantages to implementing peer mentoring programs. The clinical teacher needs to provide suitable support and encouragement to the mentor and mentee students during this program. These results might provide information that can be used in improving clinical internship experience for the students.
Aims and Objectives
This study applied structural equation modelling to explore the relationships among agitated behaviours, depression, cognitive function and activities of daily living, as well as associations between these factors and urinary incontinence).
Background
A high prevalence of urinary incontinence is found among institutional older adults with dementia. People with urinary incontinence suffer from increased financial burden and social isolation and experience reduced quality of life.
Design
Cross‐sectional correlational research. The study complied with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement.
Methods
In total, 226 older adults with dementia were recruited through convenience sampling at 15 long‐term care facilities in southern Taiwan. The urinary incontinence frequency, agitated behaviours, depression, cognitive function and activities of daily living were evaluated using bladder records, the Cohen‐Mansfield Agitation Inventory, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, the Mini‐Mental State Examination and the Barthel Index, respectively.
Results
Activities of daily living performance was found to be significantly associated with urinary incontinence; however, age, cognitive function, depression and agitated behaviours were not significantly related to urinary incontinence. Age did not have effects on any of the variables tested in this model, whereas activities of daily living performance was significantly associated with cognitive function and depression. Results further showed that cognitive function and depression were mediators between activities of daily living and agitated behaviours.
Conclusion
Enhanced activities of daily living independency directly reduced urinary incontinence, improved cognitive function, decreased degrees of depression and indirectly reduced agitated behaviours.
Relevance to clinical practice
The findings could serve as a valuable reference for long‐term care facilities in providing effective urinary incontinence care and prevention to older adults with dementia.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.