Racial Distribution and Characterization of Pelvic Organ Prolapse in a Hospital-Based Subspecialty Clinic.

Abstract

Prior literature has suggested a decreased prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in Black women. We sought to describe POP rates by race, investigate whether specific types of prolapse differ based on race, and investigate the role of uterine weight and fibroids on POP. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of new patients seen between April 2017 and April 2019 at a tertiary urogynecology clinic. Variables collected included POP quantification, race, age, smoking history, medical history, gravity, parity, vaginal delivery, hysterectomy, fibroids, and uterine weight. χ2 tests were used to compare the proportions of types of POP between Black and non-Black women. Binary and ordinal logistic regression tested the association between types of prolapse and race, adjusting for covariates. Nine hundred thirty-six patients were identified by ICD codes, 768 met inclusion criteria. There were 85.3% of the women identified as non-Black and 14.7% identified as Black. There were 39.8% of the Black women that had a fibroid diagnosis compared with 20.8% of non-Black women (P < 0.001). Black women had a higher median uterine weight, 112.2 g versus 56 g (P = 0.002), and median fibroid size, 3.4 cm versus 1.92 cm (P = 0.0001). 56.9% of women presented with anterior prolapse. No difference was found in POP type between Black and non-Black women after adjusting for age, body mass index, parity, and delivery route (P = 0.45). Black women had increased body mass index, rates of comorbidities (diabetes and hypertension), higher uterine weight and fibroid size than non-Black women in our study. However, there was no significant difference in POP type based on race.