Prevalence of urinary complaints and their impact on the quality of life of women that participate in physical activity groups

Abstract

The International Continence Society defines urinary incontinence as any loss of urine reported by the patient. This is a condition that affects the world’s population, mainly the female sex, leading to several implications. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of urinary complaints and their impact on the quality of life of women that participate in physical activity groups. Methods: A total of 50 women, aged 40 years and older that participated in physical activity groups, participated in the study carried out by Physical Therapy Department of a Basic Health Unit in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The volunteers were submitted to urogynecological anamnesis and the ones that had presented urinary complaints in the recent months answered the “King’s Health Questionnaire” to have quality of life evaluated. Results: The prevalence of women with urinary complaints was 42%. The most predominant symptoms were: urgency (95.24%), frequency (90.48%), stress incontinence (85.71%) and nocturia (80.95%). Regarding the intensity, the urge-incontinence (49) and urgency (46) symptoms had the highest rates. According to the analysis of the domains, the impact of incontinence (53.96 ± 26.83) is striking when compared with the other results, followed by the measure of severity domain (43.78 ± 23.01). Conclusion: The studied population had a high prevalence of urinary complaints and their impact on the quality of life does not rule out the negative influence of the pathological picture.