Prevalence of Stress Urinary Incontinence in Elite Female Endurance Athletes

Abstract

The goal of the study was to assess the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in a group of elite female endurance athletes, as professional sport is one of the risk factors for stress urinary incontinence. SUI rates in the groups of female cross-country skiers and runners were compared to determine whether the training weather conditions like temperature and humidity influenced the prevalence of urinary incontinence. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed among 112 elite female athletes ie., 57 cross-country skiers and 55 runners. We used a short form of the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) to assess the presence of SUI symptoms and the level of urogenital distress. Only women who had been practicing sport professionally for at least 3 years, on an international and national level, were included in the research. The study group consisted of 76% nulliparous and 24% parous women. 45.54% of all participants reported leakage of urine associated with sneezing or coughing which indicates stress urinary incontinence. 29.46% were not bothered by the urogenital distress symptoms. 42.86% of the participants were slightly bothered by the symptoms, 18.75% were moderately bothered, 8.04% were significantly bothered and 0.89% were heavily bothered. The absence of statistically significant differences between both groups seems to indicate that training weather conditions did not influence the prevalence of SUI in elite female endurance athletes.

High level rhythmic gymnasts and urinary incontinence: Prevalence, risk factors, and influence on performance

“…32 On the other hand, Yi et al 13 found that 24% of tri-athletes had at least one arm of the female athlete triad, but the athletic triad was not associated with symptoms of any pelvic floor disorders, for example, UI. Our results did not confirm other findings from other sports where low BMI 12,29 and length of participation in sport/hours of training 15,18,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] were significant risk factors. This may be explained by the high training load and low BMI in all the rhythmic gymnasts.…”

Urinary incontinence prevalence in the day-by-day life and during sports practice in volleyball athletes: a systematic review

“…Among the recommendations, items 9, 17, and 21 stood out as they were not present in any of the 5 articles included in the review. These were: describe any efforts to address potential sources of bias (9); report other analyses done (17); discuss the generalizability (external validity) of the study results (21).…”

“…Literature proves that sports practice of high impact is related to the occurrence of pelvic floor dysfunctions, such as UI [21][22]. Reis et al [13] affirms that among the sports modalities of high impact, volleyball belongs to the ones that most intensively exert a direct influence on the pelvic floor of the athletes.…”

A prática esportiva e o assoalho pélvico feminino: uma revisão da literatura.

“…Alguns estudos compararam a prevalência de IU entre atletas e não atletas, e concluiram que atletas de elite têm alta prevalência de IU quando comparadas a um grupo controle, e ainda que, na prática de esportes de alto impacto, o risco aumenta 12,23,27,[30][31][32] . Já Salvatore et al 33 , ao analisar atletas recreacionais, observaram que a incidência de IU entre as mulheres era menor, e concluíram que o impacto da incontinência urinária nas atletas recreacionais não é tão significativo quando comparado com a prática esportiva profissional.…”