Disposable bedpads for incontinence: predicting their clinical leakage properties using laboratory tests

• Published in: Medical engineering & physics Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 347 - 359
• Main Authors: Cottenden, A.M, Dean, G.E, Brooks, R.J, Haines-Nutt, R.F, Rothwell, J.G, Penfold, P.H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.1998; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: absorbency; Absorption; Bedding and Linens - statistics & numerical data; Biological and medical sciences; clinical/technical correlations; Disposable Equipment - statistics & numerical data; Equipment Design; Humans; Incontinence; incontinence pads; Materials Testing - methods; Materials Testing - statistics & numerical data; Medical sciences; Nephrology. Urinary tract diseases; Prognosis; United Kingdom; Urinary Incontinence - therapy; Urinary system involvement in other diseases. Miscellaneous; Urinary tract. Prostate gland; standards; Incontinence; incontinence pads; absorbency; clinical/technical correlations; Performance evaluation; Human; Bed; Urinary system disease; Device; Multicenter study; Urinary tract disease; Urinary incontinence; Voiding dysfunction; Absorbance; Laboratory test; Bladder disease; Comparative study
• ISSN: 1350-4533; 1873-4030
• DOI: 10.1016/S1350-4533(98)00030-7

A multi-centre project has been run to identify laboratory tests capable of predicting the leakage performance of disposable incontinence bedpads. Each of 95 subjects tested each of six products for a week in turn and reported whether or not they and/or their carers found the leakage performance of each product acceptable. In addition, carers noted the severity with which individual used bedpads had leaked so that, when they had been weighed, their leakage performance could be determined as a function of urine weight. These clinical data were compared with results from the 16 different laboratory tests used routinely for bedpad evaluation in three hospital laboratories. Each test was evaluated by seeing how well the data it yielded correlated with the clinical test data. No individual test was very successful at predicting the performance of bedpads when used as sole protection but a combination of an absorption capacity test and an absorption time test predicted the percentage of users/carers finding leakage performance acceptable, accurate to within ±eight percentage points for all six test products. A different absorption capacity test proved most successful for bedpads used as back-up to bodyworn products. It predicted the percentage of users/carers finding leakage performance acceptable, accurate to ±five percentage points for all six products.