Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence in 6-week Postpartum Women

Objective:To determine the prevalence of and potential risk factors for postpartum urinary incontinence (UI) in Thai women.Materials and Methods: Total of 363 women delivered in University Hospital and attended 6-week postpartum check-up visits were recruited. Self-administered questionnaires and structural interviews were used to collect data. Logistic regression was used to test the independence of variables.Results: The prevalence of UI in 6-week postpartum women was 17.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 13.19- 20.97). They were classified into three groups; stress incontinence in 12.1%, urgency incontinence in 0.6%, and mixed incontinence in 4.4%. The risk for postpartum UI rose significantly among pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) of more than 30 (OR 3.75; 95%CI 1.47-9.58). Risk for postpartum UI was significantly lower among those who performed pelvic floor muscle exercise (OR 0.005; 95%CI 0.001-0.028).Conclusion: Urinary incontinence was prevalent at 6 weeks, postpartum, in Thai women. The significant independent predictors were pre-pregnancy BMI and practice of pelvic floor muscle exercise