The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing engaged HMA in collaboration with the National Ageing Research Institute to undertake research on incontinence in Australia and conduct an independent evaluation of government-funded continence initiatives. The Continence Policy and Research Project aimed to help government set the policy direction for incontinence by providing valuable data on the cost, demographics and impacts of incontinence in Australia, and by undertaking an independent evaluation of current government-funded continence programs and services.
Key tasks of the project included:
- Data scoping exercise to understand currency, suitability and accessibility of potential data sets that may inform prevalence and costs of incontinence in Australia
- Literature scan for relevant information on continence best practice, service availability and use, prevalence reported in the literature, risk factors for incontinence and economic studies/information
- Preparation of an ethics application and associated documentation
- Development of an evaluation framework, including program logic, evaluation areas, key evaluation questions, indicators and data sources
- Analysis of government program, MBS/PBS, aged care and population data to estimate the prevalence of incontinence among specified population cohorts in Australia
- Consultation with key stakeholders, including the Continence Foundation of Australia, professional and peak bodies, health professionals (e.g. urologists, paediatricians, geriatricians, continence nurse specialists, GPs)
- Survey of health professionals and people affected by incontinence to understand their use of services, gaps or access issues and benefits derived from the services
- Economic analyses, including cost-benefit analysis of incontinence and government-funded continence services to Australians, and social return on investment analysis of the National Continence Program and derived benefits
- Development of an options paper to inform future policy relating to incontinence and the future National Action Plan for Continence.
The project commenced in June 2023 and was completed in June 2025.
