Hypothesis / aims of study
The regular physical activities benefits for body and mind are broadly known. However some women remain deprived of them because urinary incontinence symptoms which could be triggered or complicated by certain exercise modalities [1,2].
Urinary Incontinence is a underreported condition. The social stigma related to women's lack of knowledge about therapeutic alternatives is thought to be an important cause of underreporting.
This study aims to asses the demand of women who work out at gym for urinary incontinence treatment as well as to understand the factors that influence women's decisions on whether they seek medical treatment for urinary incontinence.
Study design, materials and methods
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study associated with the KAP Survey, carried out in gyms from March to July 2022 after Ethical approval.
A subscale extracted from the validated instrument called KAP-IU was used as research instrument [3]. This subscale evaluates the participants' responses regarding the search for professional help, the guidance received from professionals and which treatments were carried out in women with urinary complaints.
The following inclusion criteria were established: women over 18 years of age who have been exercising for at least 6 consecutive months. Pregnant women and those with difficulty understanding instructions were excluded from the study.
Open-epi 3.01 was used for sample calculation. The parameters settled for sample calculation was same for cross-sectional studies with a finite population. The confidence interval was 95% with a 5% margin of error and a prevalence estimate of 50%. In order to be representative, the total sample estimated was 256 women. The participants were included in the study after signing the Free and Informed Consent Form (TCLE).
Results
From total sample 110 women (43,3%) had urinary incontinence (UI) symptoms. The median’s participants age was 33 years with a range between 18 and 67 years old. Most of them were single (59,8%) with brown skin (61,7%) and an adequate corporal mass index (24,69 median, with a range between 22,68 and 27,07). Most of them had a good education higher level (96,48%) and a monthly income above US$ 387,32.
A significant part of this women group had never sought treatment for their urinary incontinence symptoms (table1). In fact, some participants did not consider the treatment necessary (27.03%) while other did not experience frequent urine loss (22.9%) (figure 1).
Among women who sought assistance (29.5%), 22.6% reported not having received any guidance from health professionals. Among the 77.4% who received guidance, the majority (45.8%) were advised to perform pelvic floor muscle training. All of them reported had followed recommendation.
Sociodemographic and obstetric data as well as parameters related to physical activity were compared with the treatment subscale in order to verify the presence of factors that influenced the treatment practice in relation to UI.
Among the variables analyzed, only marital status and the number of pregnancies were statistically associated with inadequate treatment practice. Single women and those with fewer pregnancies were those who least sought help to treat UI (64.47%).
Interpretation of results
Urinary incontinence proved to be prevalent, affecting 43% of participants. Surprisingly, a large proportion (70.5%) of these women said they had never sought help to treat this condition. The most common reasons for this negligence were the perception of not needing to seek help and infrequent urinary leaks. Furthermore, we noticed that single women and those with fewer pregnancies were more likely to adopt inappropriate practices, probably because they had milder symptoms.