Observational Study on the Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence in Female Athletes

Jorge Velázquez-Saornil, Encarnación Méndez-Sánchez, Sonia Gómez-Sánchez, Zacarías Sánchez-Milá, Ester Cortés-Llorente, Ana Martín-Jiménez, Elena Sánchez-Jiménez and Angélica Campón-Chekroun
Additional contact information
Jorge Velázquez-Saornil: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Encarnación Méndez-Sánchez: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Sonia Gómez-Sánchez: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Zacarías Sánchez-Milá: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Ester Cortés-Llorente: FisioSalud Ávila, 05002 Ávila, Spain
Ana Martín-Jiménez: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Elena Sánchez-Jiménez: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain
Angélica Campón-Chekroun: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila, 05005 Ávila, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Purpose: To study the prevalence of UI in female athletes, the category of sports with the highest number of cases, the most incident risk factors and the bio-psycho-social consequences. Methods: Preparation of a survey, based on two validated questionnaires answered by 63 participants, to carry out an analytical, transversal and observational study. All participants were European, adult, female athletes (mean age 30.78 years, standard deviation 12.16 years). Results: UI has a high prevalence (44.4%) in female athletes (compared to 10% in non-athletes), being more frequent in those who practice long-distance running. As age and years of sport practice increase, the incidence of this pathology increases. Absorbent pads are used by more than half of women with incontinence, while the rest wet their underwear. Menopause, childbirth and surgery in the region are risk factors for UI, while the presence of urinary tract infections or candidiasis is not. The results state that urine loss does not cause anxiety or depression, but it does affect sporting life. Conclusions: The prevalence of UI in this study is very high and more common in female athletes and the incidence increases with age and other risk factors. The salient consequence of this study is that urine loss affects their sporting environment, but does not induce depression or anxiety.

Keywords: urinary incontinence; women’s health; sports; incontinence; urinary stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5591/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5591/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5591-:d:560899

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().