ICIQ-Cognitively Impaired Elderly (ICIQ-Cog)

International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Cognitively Impaired Elderly (ICIQ-Cog)

Summary:

The ICIQ-Cog questionnaire was developed in Germany and led by University Professor Dr. Ruth Kirschner-Hermanns and Team. The ICIQ-Cog aims to measure the disease-related impact of incontinence and /or toilet use problems in cognitively impaired adults and the efforts associated with the care of this population. The ICIQ-Cog aims to measure: (i) incontinence-related bother by observing corresponding behavioural (emotional, motor, physiological) characteristics of clinical and care-giving relevance (ICIQ-Cog-P) and (ii) the level of the care efforts with respect to the special needs of cognitively impaired nursing home residents with incontinence (ICIQ-Cog-C).

The ICIQ-Cog consists of two scales: an 8-item scale measuring disease -specific bother (ICIQ-Cog-P) and a four item scale assessing efforts associate with the care of people with incontinence and cognitive impairment (ICIQ-Cog-C).

The questionnaire is currently available in German only. The English translation of the ICIQ-Cog is not yet available as further work needs to be done. Please see the publication below by Avery et al. (2025) for further details.

Associated publications:
Volz-Sidiropoulou, E., Rings, T., Wagg, A.S., Leistner, N., Gauggel, S., Kirschner-Hermanns, R., 2018. Development and initial psychometric properties of the “ICIQ-Cog”: a new assessment tool to measure the disease-related impact and care effort associated with incontinence in cognitively impaired adults. BJU Int. 122, 309–316

Avery, M., Cotterill, N., Fader, M., Macaulay, M., Kirschner-Hermanns, R., Murphy, C., 2025. Measuring the impact of managing incontinence on people with dementia and informal caregivers: Cognitive debriefing interviews of ‘ICIQ-Cog’ (English translation). Continence 13:101739.

Level of Validation according to ICI grades of recommendation: Not assessed

Completion time: 5 -10 minutes

Number of items and Scoring scale:  

ICIQ-Cog-P: 8 items on a 4 point Likert scale. Scoring range 8-32

High scores indicate high levels of disease related bother.

ICIQ-Cog-C: 4 items on a 4 point Likert scale. Scoring range 4-16

High scores indicate high levels of care effort.

Available languages: German