In april, SCA/TENA arranged the Global Forum of Incontinence for the second time. The title of the seminar was “Incontinence – a challenge for society” and the purpose was to describe how incontinence affects patients, relatives and society at large.
The forum focused particularly on the challenge involved in balancing health economics with the quality of life for patients and their care givers. More than 250 incontinence opinion leaders gathered at the Global Forum of Incontinence, GFI, in Nice, France.
Incontinence is a condition that affects a large part of the world’s population. It is also an area of great importance for the quality of life for patients and relatives, occupational health for care takers and for health economics. The situation is similar in the whole industrialised world and the demographic development, with ageing populations, will put increased pressure on incontinence care.
Associate Professor Rosanna Tarricone, University of Bocconi, Italy, spoke about the impact of incontinence on health economics.
“We want to create awareness around incontinence and also present the whole picture,“says Annika Gremner, Communications Manager for TENA, SCA’s incontinence brand. "The topic is complex and it is therefore important to describe incontinence and incontinence care from several different perspectives."
This ambitioned was mirrored by the composition of the GFI delegates which included care takers, politicians, health administrators, care providers and patient groups. The consensus from those attending the meeting was that the incontinence issue needs to be higher on the healthcare agenda, requiring better planning and more accessible services.