Drugs and Constipation in Elderly in Nursing Homes: What Is the Relation?
Table 1
Characteristics of the participants and comparisons between participants with and without constipation. The results are given as mean (standard deviation (SD)), median (range), and number (proportion (%)).
Characteristics1
All participants
Participants with constipation
Participants without constipation
Statistics value
Age (years)
85.4 (SD 7.1)
85.3 (SD 6.9)
85.6(SD 7.5)
0.69
Gender (female)
188 (70.4%)
139 (72.8%)
49 (64.5%)
0.19
Ability to give informed consent
98 (36.7%)
66 (34.6%)
32 (42.1%)
0.26
Functional constipation (Rome III) ()
95 (35.7%)
95 (50.0%)2
0
n.a.
Body mass index (kg/m2) ()
25.5 (SD 4.9)
24.5 (SD 5.3)
24.7 (SD 4.9)
0.72
Smoking ()
19/49/195
13/30/144
6/19/51
Current/before/never
(7.2/18.6/74.1%)
(7.0/16.0/77.0%)
(7.9/25.0/67.1%)
0.22
Use of alcohol > once a month ()
39 (14.6%)
28 (14.9%)
11 (14.7%)
1.00
Walking steps/day ()
200 (0–5000)
139 (0–5000)
400 (0–5000)
0.02
Mobility
120/80/67
100/48/43
20/32/24
Bedridden/walk indoors/walk outdoors
(44.9/30.0/25.1%)
(52.4/25.1/22.5%)
(26.3/42.1/31.6%)
<0.01
Intake of fluids (Glass/day)
9.9 (SD 2.9)
9.0 (SD 2.8)
10.1 (SD 3.0)
<0.01
Dietary fibre (gram/day)
15.6 (SD 6.4)
15.3 (SD 6.3)
16.4 (SD 6.6)
0.18
Katz’ Activity of Daily Living 3 ()
2 (0–6)
1 (0–6)
3 (0–6)
<0.001
Mini Nutritional Assessment score ()
21.4 (SD 3.5)
19.6 (SD 3.9)
21.5 (SD 3.6)
0.001
Type of food ()
41/44/181
33/36/121
8/8/60
Mashed/without crust/ordinary food
(15.4/16.5/67.8%)
(17.4/18.9/63.7%)
(10.5/10.5/78.9%)
0.04
Incontinence urine only ()
93 (35.0%)
73 (38.2%)
20 (26.7%)
0.09
Incontinence urine and faeces ()
124 (46.8%)
90 (47.4%)
34 (45.3%)
0.79
Bedsore/wound ()
32 (12.1%)
28 (14.7%)
4 (5.3%)
0.04
Number of diseases ()
5 (1–15)
5 (0–15)
5 (0–10)
0.85
Heart diseases ()
118 (44.5%)
82 (43.2%)
36 (48.0%)
0.50
Venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism ()
20 (7.6%)
17 (8.9%)
3 (4.1%)
0.21
Stroke ()
91 (34.5%)
72 (38.1%)
19 (25.3%)
0.06
Depression/anxiety ()
131 (49.2%)
100 (52.4%)
31 (41.3%)
0.13
Dementia ()
148 (55.8%)
105 (55.0%)
43 (58.1%)
0.68
Diabetes (both I and II) ()
32 (12.0%)
20 (10.5%)
12 (16.0%)
0.22
Parkinson’s disease ()
15 (5.6%)
10 (5.2%)
5 (6.7%)
0.77
Hypothyroidism ()
20 (7.5%)
9 (4.7%)
11 (6.7%)
0.001
S-creatinine (above reference values) ()
62 (24.4%)
37 (20.4%)
25 (34.2%)
0.02
Albumin (g/L) ()
38.9 (SD 4.1)
38.5 (SD 4.2)
39.5 (SD 3.7)
0.16
1Number of residents is given in brackets when data are missing. 2 Use of laxatives regularly is included in the definition of constipation. 3 Katz Index of Independence in Activities of daily living. (Score 0–6: 0 = very dependent; 6 = independent).
