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Public health
Research
Assessing health, quality of life and urogenital function in a sample of the Swedish general population: a cross-sectional study
  1. David Bock1,2,3,
  2. Eva Angenete1,2,
  3. Elisabeth Gonzales1,2,
  4. Jane Heath1,2,
  5. Eva Haglind1,2
  1. 1 Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Goteborg, Sweden
  2. 2 Scandinavian Surgical Outcomes Research Group (SSORG), Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra, Gothenburg, Sweden
  3. 3 Health Metrics Unit, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
  1. Correspondence to Dr David Bock; david.bock{at}gu.se

Abstract

Objective Evaluate the urinary, bowel and sexual function as well as stress symptoms and depression in a sample of the Swedish population.

Design A random sample of Swedish men and women in age groups from 30 to 89 years, a total of 3000 individuals, were contacted and after receiving informed consent, a questionnaire was sent.

Main outcome measures Measures of urinary, bowel, sexual function and quality of life.

Results The questionnaire was sent to 2094 individuals who gave informed consent. The questionnaire was answered by 1078 individuals. Quality of life, stress symptoms and depressed mood were relatively constant across age groups for both men and women. Urinary function differed significantly across gender and age groups, but bowel function was relatively unaffected by age. Overall bowel dysfunction was slightly more prevalent among women compared with men. For both men and women, the frequency of intercourse or other sexual activities decreased with age, whereas sexually associated distress increased by age in men, but decreased among women.

Conclusions In a general population, the urinary function varied across age and sex. Overall bowel dysfunction was slightly more prevalent among women compared with men. Sexually associated distress increased by age for men, but decreased for women.

Trial registration number NCT02392923; Results.

  • general population
  • urinary incontinences
  • urogenital function
  • quality of life
  • epidemiology

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021974

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors Research area and study design: EH, EA, EG and JH; data acquisition: EH; data analysis and interpretation: DB and EH; statistical analysis: DB; supervision and mentorship: EH. Each author contributed important intellectual content during manuscript drafting or revision and accepts accountability for the overall work by ensuring that questions pertaining to the accuracy or integrity of any portion of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. DB takes responsibility that this study has been reported honestly, accurately and transparently; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been explained.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Region Västra Götaland, Sahlgrenska University Hospital ALF grant ALFGBG-4307771.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval The trial was approved by the Board of Ethical Approval in Gothenburg, Sweden (registration number 608-13).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Statistical programming code and datasets can be available upon request.