The prevalence of fecal incontinence and urinary incontinence in primiparous postpartum Chinese women

Objective

This study investigated the prevalence of fecal incontinence (FI) and urinary incontinence (UI) in primiparous postpartum Chinese women.

Study design

Questionnaires about FI and UI symptoms were completed via telephone interviews conducted within 6 months postpartum.

Results

A total of 1889 primiparous postpartum women were asked to participate in this investigation. Only 13 (0.69%) of them had FI within 6 months after parturition, including loss of flatus in six women (0.32%), loss of solid stool in one (0.05%), loss of liquid stool in two (0.11%) and fecal urgency in four (0.21%). Bivariate logistic regression analysis showed that FI was significantly associated with forceps delivery OR = 37.91 (95% CI 4.20-342.18, P = 0.001) and medio-lateral episiotomy OR = 11.79 (95% CI 1.47-94.46, P = 0.02). The prevalence of UI, stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence (UUI) and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) was 9.9% (186), 8.0% (151), 1.0% (18) and 0.9% (17), respectively. Multinomial logistic regression analysis found that SUI prevalence was related to age OR = 1.08 (95% CI 1.04-1.12, P = 0.000), maternal weight OR = 1.04 (95% CI 1.02-1.06, P = 0.001), neonate head circumference OR = 1.17 (95% CI 1.01-1.36, P = 0.043), spontaneous labor OR = 5.42 (95% CI 2.60-11.32, P = 0.000), forceps delivery OR = 7.0 (95% CI 2.40-20.41, P = 0.000), and medio-lateral episiotomy OR = 5.24 (95% CI 3.15-8.72, P = 0.000).

Conclusions

1. FI and UI prevalence was lower in our department than reported in previous studies in other areas. 2. Vaginal delivery has a risk impact on women's FI and UI, especially forceps delivery and medio-lateral episiotomy. 3. Maternal age, weight, newborn head circumference, spontaneous vaginal delivery, forceps delivery, and medio-lateral episiotomy increase the risk of UI.