Background: Constipation is a common complaint in the care of elderly in long term care facility. The Bristol Stool Chart (BSC) has been the gold standard for describing the form and consistency of bowel motions but is limited as a descriptive qualitative tool.Objective: To pilot the feasibility of a novel stool scoring system in quantitative analysis of bowel motions and their texture.Methods: 100 medical records were randomly selected from a local long-term care facility to extract descriptions of bowel movements and stool textures in the previous 7 days. A novel numeric stool score of +3 to -3 for each documented bowel motion and a cumulative value was obtained. Such score was recorded against the total cost of treatment.
Results:In the period studied, there was no significant difference in the mean bowel motions, the cumulative stool score and costs of laxative treatment between the male and female population.
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.