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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Sarcopenia | Research

Association between calf circumference and incontinence in Chinese elderly

Authors: Lin Li, Feilong Chen, Xiaoyan Li, Yiyuan Gao, Silin Zhu, Xiyezi Diao, Ning Wang, Tao Xu

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Background

The objective of this study was to analyze the association between calf circumference and incontinence in Chinese elderly, and to find out the maximal cut-off point by gender for the use of calf circumference in screening for incontinence.

Methods

In this study, participants were from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The maximal calf circumference cut-off point and other incontinence-related risk factors were explored using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression analysis.

Results

The study included 14,989 elderly people (6,516 males and 8,473 females) over 60. The prevalence of incontinence in elderly males was 5.23% (341/6,516), significantly lower than females, which was 8.31% (704/8,473) (p < 0.001). There was no correlation between calf circumference < 34 cm in males and < 33 cm in females and incontinence after adjusting the confounders. We further stratified by gender to predict incontinence in elderly based on the Youden index of ROC curves. We found the association between calf circumference and incontinence was the strongest when the cut-off points were < 28.5 cm for males and < 26.5 cm for females, with an odds rate (OR) value of 1.620 (male, 95%CI: 1.197–2.288) and 1.292 (female, 95%CI: 1.044–1.600) after adjusting the covariates, respectively.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that calf circumference < 28.5 cm in males and < 26.5 cm in females is a risk factor for incontinence in the Chinese elderly population. Calf circumference should be measured in routine physical examination, and timely interventions should be made to reduce the risk of incontinence in subjects with calf circumference less than the threshold.
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Metadata
Title
Association between calf circumference and incontinence in Chinese elderly
Authors
Lin Li
Feilong Chen
Xiaoyan Li
Yiyuan Gao
Silin Zhu
Xiyezi Diao
Ning Wang
Tao Xu
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15324-4

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