The prevalence of fecal incontinence and urinary incontinence in primiparous postpartum Chinese women

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of fecal incontinence (FI) and urinary incontinence (UI) in primiparous postpartum Chinese women.

Study design: Questionnaires about FI and UI symptoms were completed via telephone interviews conducted within 6 months postpartum.

Results: A total of 1889 primiparous postpartum women were asked to participate in this investigation. Only 13 (0.69%) of them had FI within 6 months after parturition, including loss of flatus in six women (0.32%), loss of solid stool in one (0.05%), loss of liquid stool in two (0.11%) and fecal urgency in four (0.21%). Bivariate logistic regression analysis showed that FI was significantly associated with forceps delivery OR=37.91 (95% CI 4.20-342.18, P=0.001) and medio-lateral episiotomy OR=11.79 (95% CI 1.47-94.46, P=0.02). The prevalence of UI, stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence (UUI) and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) was 9.9% (186), 8.0% (151), 1.0% (18) and 0.9% (17), respectively. Multinomial logistic regression analysis found that SUI prevalence was related to age OR=1.08 (95% CI 1.04-1.12, P=0.000), maternal weight OR=1.04 (95% CI 1.02-1.06, P=0.001), neonate head circumference OR=1.17 (95% CI 1.01-1.36, P=0.043), spontaneous labor OR=5.42 (95% CI 2.60-11.32, P=0.000), forceps delivery OR=7.0 (95% CI 2.40-20.41, P=0.000), and medio-lateral episiotomy OR=5.24 (95% CI 3.15-8.72, P=0.000).

Conclusions: 1. FI and UI prevalence was lower in our department than reported in previous studies in other areas. 2. Vaginal delivery has a risk impact on women's FI and UI, especially forceps delivery and medio-lateral episiotomy. 3. Maternal age, weight, newborn head circumference, spontaneous vaginal delivery, forceps delivery, and medio-lateral episiotomy increase the risk of UI.