Improving faecal continence among residents in care homes (ImFaCON)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving faecal continence among residents in Care Homes: developing an intervention and conducting a feasibility study
IRAS ID
244359
Contact name
Massirfufulay Kpehe Musa
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 2 days
Research summary
This study seeks to improve bowel care of older people living in care homes (care home here refers to both residential and nursing care homes) by developing a new approach to deliver continence care. The Health Technology Assessment funded realist synthesis of evidence on managing faecal incontinence in people with advanced dementia living in care homes (the FINCH review) provides key theoretical basis for this study. \n\nFaecal incontinence is the incapacity to appropriately control the bowel, resulting in leakage of faecal material which can be social or hygiene problem. Two systematic reviews have been carried out by the PhD Student to understand more about this topic: the prevalence, incidence and correlates of faecal incontinence, and review of the best available interventions to manage or treat faecal incontinence among older people living in care homes. Faecal incontinence is more prevalent among older people, particularly those living in care homes compared with younger people or older people living at home. There are many underlying causes of faecal incontinence and some of these causes are amendable to interventions.\n\nNone of the approaches to managing faecal incontinence takes account of the complexity of the care home environment and the variability among care home residents. Therefore, this research study proposes a multicomponent continence care model that comprises of toileting (e.g. scheduled toileting, prompted toileting, and regular incontinence pad change), physical exercises (e.g. mobility/ambulation), conservative therapies (e.g. addressing polypharmacy, diet/fluid intakes), and staff education. The study is divided into two phases: Phase 1 (stakeholders’ engagement to get views on how the proposed intervention can be operationalised), which will help to refine the proposed intervention, and Phase 2 (feasibility study) to test out the proposed intervention. The proposed study will follow a mixed-methods approach.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/YH/0089
Date of REC Opinion
21 May 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion