Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access

Abstract

Prevalence of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction among Married Women of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India

Bhamini Krishna Rao, Shubha R Nayak, Pratap Kumar, Veena Kamath, Asha Kamath and Sahana Suraj

Background: Pelvic floor dysfunction predominantly affects women of all the ages with an increasing prevalence with advancing age. Very few studies on prevalence of urinary incontinence have been conducted in India and none in Udupi taluk. Aim: The aim of this cross-sectional study is to estimate the prevalence of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction among married women of Udupi taluk, Karnataka, India and to evaluate the impact of age, educational qualification, occupation, parity and mode of delivery on pelvic floor dysfunction.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1256 married women using a structured questionnaire. Women were interviewed at their residence using the questionnaire. Institutional ethical committee approval and written informed consent was obtained before the interview.

Result: Prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction was reported to be 21% with 19.02% of the women experiencing urinary incontinence and 1.99% experiencing pelvic organ prolapse. The mean age of the women participated in this study was 45.4 ± 11.8 (ranging between 18-70 years). Eighty seven percent of the women were housewives and 69% of the women had only primary education. Statistically significant association was found between age (p ≤ 0.001), occupation of the women (p ≤ 0.001), presence of urinary incontinence during pregnancy which disappeared after delivery (p=0.009) and occurrence of at least one type of pelvic floor dysfunction. Age, occupation and presence of symptom of urinary incontinence during pregnancy which disappeared after the delivery were reported as the independent predictor of symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction when analyzed with multivariate logistic regression model.

Conclusion: Prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction among women of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India was found to be 21% with age, occupation and presence of symptom of urinary incontinence during pregnancy which disappeared after the delivery as the independent predictor of symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction.