Prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction and associated risk factors among Nulligravida college students: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundPelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) is a global health problem affecting millions of women worldwide. Vaginal childbirth has been reported to be the most important factor in the etiology of PFD though a prior study also reported a high prevalence of PFD in nulliparous women. Some previous studies had suggested Urinary incontinence before pregnancy as a major risk factor for incontinence later in life, thus prevention of PFD has become a major priority in women’s health, and identification of women at risk is a key element in current prevention strategies It is therefore necessary to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for PFD in Nulligravida women who have never been pregnant to enable preventative measures especially as it regards lifestyle modification.MethodsParticipants were 160 Nulligravida students aged between 17 and 26 years. They were screened for pelvic floor dysfunction using an Australian pelvic floor questionnaire which assessed their bladder function, bowel function, pelvic organ prolapse, and sexual function. Descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage were used to summarize categorical variables. Univariate analysis of Fisher’s exact test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were conducted to show the association of categorical and continuous variables with pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) respectively. The risk factors of PFD with p values < 0.05 were considered significant. All analyses were performed using R Statistical Computing Programming version 4.2.2.ResultsThe prevalence of having at least one of any of the PFD was 73.1% while the prevalence of bladder, bowel, prolapse, and sex dysfunction were 25.63% (41/160), 53.75% (86/160), 1.88% (3/160), and 23.13% (37/160) respectively. BMI was not a significant risk factor for any type of PFD while multi-variable logistic regression identified the level of study, height, history of UTI, and non-sport participation as significant (p < 0.05) risk factors for at least one type of PFD with Odd ratio of 4.91, > 100, 8.47, and 2.86 respectively.ConclusionThere is high prevalence of PFD among Nulligravida students, with non-participation in sports and history of urinary tract infections being the main significant risk factors.