Racial disparities in primary prevention of incontinence among older adults at nursing home admission

Aims Maintaining continence of nursing home (NH) residents promotes dignity and well‐being and may reduce morbidity and healthcare treatment costs. To determine the prevalence of older continent adults who received primary prevention of incontinence at NH admission, assess whether there were racial or ethnic disparities in incontinence prevention, and describe factors associated with any disparities. Methods The design was an observational cross‐sectional study of a nation‐wide cohort of older adults free of incontinence at NH admission (n = 42,693). Four US datasets describing NH and NH resident characteristics, practitioner orders for NH treatment/care, and socioeconomic and sociodemographic status of the community surrounding the NHs were analyzed. Disparities were analyzed for four minority groups identified on the minimum data set using the Peters–Belson method and covariates at multiple levels. Results Twelve percent of NH admissions received incontinence prevention. There was a significant disparity (2%) in incontinence prevention for Blacks (P