Reducing the burden of regular indwelling urinary catheter changes in the catheter clinics: the opinion of patients and relatives on the practice of self-catheterization

BACKGROUND: Clean intermittent self-catheterization is accepted worldwide as a standard of care for patients with long-standing need for urinary bladder decompression. Evidence of its routine practice in our low-resource setting is lacking, leading to increasing number of patients with a long-standing indwelling urinary catheter. OBJECTIVE: To seek the opinion of patients already using indwelling catheters regarding the practice of self-catheterization. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Over a 4-month period, the opinion of every patient and patient’s relative that attended the regular urinary catheter clinic was sought using an intern-administered questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: A total of 108 patients completed the questionnaire. Age range was 16–100 years with a mean of 62.2±15.5 years. Only 30.5% of the patients had formal education beyond the primary level. The median cost for change of the indwelling catheter was 1,325 naira ($8.28 US) with a range of 500–4,000 naira ($3.13–$25 USD). Analysis showed that: 70.8% of patients aged under 60 years/60.6% of those with formal education beyond primary level/61.9% of those wearing catheters for <3 months would give consent for training in self-catheterization. Higher cost of catheter change did not influence the decision to consider self-catheterization. Of the 59 patient relatives who completed the questionnaire, 63% of those younger than 50 years old and 69.2% of those with tertiary education would be willing to undertake training to administer self-catheterization. CONCLUSION: A select group of patients and accompanying relatives in our low-resource setting are willing to learn and practice self-catheterization.