Quality of Life and Female Sexual Dysfunction in Croatian Women with Stress-, Urgency- and Mixed Urinary Incontinence: Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background and objectives: Urinary incontinence is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. Studies have reported that the severity of urinary incontinence symptoms can cause decreased quality of life and female sexual dysfunction in women, but the association between the duration of the incontinence and the aforementioned disturbances has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences in the occurrence of decreased quality of life and female sexual dysfunction in Croatian women with urinary incontinence, with regard to the duration and subtype of urinary incontinence. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from March 2017 to July 2018 at our neurourology and urodynamics outpatient clinic, among 120 women with urinary incontinence symptoms. Based on medical history, physical exam and urodynamic assessment, participants were divided into groups with stress-, urgency- and mixed urinary incontinence. Several quality of life and female sexual dysfunction questionnaires were used for evaluation. The differences between the three UI groups were tested by the Kruskal–Wallis test. All p values were two-sided. The level of significance was set to Alpha = 0.05. Results: The mixed urinary incontinence group had a significantly inferior quality of life (p = 0.003) and lower scores on the female sexual dysfunction questionnaires (p = 0.02). The longer the duration of incontinence King’s Health Questionnaire total score was worse (p = 0.003) and Female Sexual Function Index total score was worse (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the occurrence of decreased quality of life and female sexual dysfunction considering the duration and subtype of incontinence in Croatian women.

Does two-piece PPI provide improvement in patient-partner quality of life?

“…Sexual dysfunction of the female patient negatively affects QoL (24). A high rate of sexual dysfunction was observed with the decrease in QoL of female patients with organic origin diseases, and it was observed that the same findings were also observed in the male partners of the patients (25)(26)(27)(28). Successful treatment of female patients' diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, pituitary insufficiency, hypothyroidism and breast cancer improves their sexual dysfunction and QoL (29,30).…”

Female Sexual Dysfunctions and Urogynecological Complaints: A Narrative Review

“…A recent study reported that, in comparison to women with UUI or SUI, individuals with MUI showed much higher levels of quality-of-life dissatisfaction, significantly lower total King’s Health Questionnaire ratings due to the overall negative effects of UI on quality of life, and significantly greater physical restrictions [ 111 ]. Women with MUI had a poorer quality of life than those with SUI and UUI, according to other research.…”

“…Women with MUI had a poorer quality of life than those with SUI and UUI, according to other research. Additionally, participants’ scores on the WHOQOL-BREF scale for their overall score, social relationships, environment, and psychological health were worse [ 111 ].…”