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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2006;295:2838.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

About 1 of 4 urinary catheters implanted in hospitalized patients aged 70 years or older and 1 of 3 in hospitalized patients aged 85 years or older are unnecessary, according to a new study (Holroyd-Leduc JM et al. J Patient Saf. 2005;1:201-207).

Patient interviews and medical record reviews conducted at two teaching hospitals in Ohio—the University Hospitals of Cleveland and the Akron City Hospital—reveal that 378 of 1586 patients admitted without a specific medical indication for urinary catheterization received the devices. Risk factors for unnecessary catheterization included female gender; chronic illness; cognitive impairment; incontinence; inability to carry out common activities of daily living; a physician's order for bed rest; and geriatric conditions including confusion, falls, and failure to thrive at home. Patients with 5 or more risk factors had a 50% risk of being catheterized unnecessarily.

The high use of urinary catheters among hospitalized patients may . . . [Full Text of this Article]