Prevalence of Pelvic Floor Disorders in Parous Women from the Tibet Autonomous Region: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose

Pelvic floor disorder (PFD) seriously affects the everyday life of women. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for postpartum PFD in women living in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Methods

Parous women who attended the outpatient gynaecology clinic at our hospital between June 2022 and August 2022 were screened in this study. The demographic and clinical data of these women were collected. Their pelvic floor functions were evaluated via a pelvic organ prolapse (POP) quantification examination, the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20) and the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS).

Results

A total of 201 women were included in this study, of whom 81.09% (163/201) were Tibetan. Twenty-seven women (13.43%) were diagnosed with POP stage ≥2 and 27 women (13.43%) with an OABSS score ≥3. The median PFDI-20 total score was 4.17 (range 0–43.75). Han women (n = 38) in the TAR had much lower PFDI-20 total scores, compared with Tibetan women (n = 163) (p < 0.05). The results of the multiple linear regression models showed that the PFDI-20 scores obtained from women living in the TAR were closely related to parity, history of heavy weight lifting, age, history of instrumental deliveries, ethnicity and number of caesarean sections.

Conclusion

Pelvic floor disorder is common among parous women living in the TAR. Ethnicity, parity, history of heavy weight lifting, age, history of instrumental deliveries and number of caesarean sections are the factors closely related to the PFDI-20 scores.

Keywords:

• pelvic floor disorder
• Tibet Autonomous Region
• pelvic organ prolapse
• urinary incontinence
• overactive bladder symptoms

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethics committee of our hospital, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

1.National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding, BJ-2019-138. 2.The Natural Science Foundation of the Tibet Autonomous Region organized a group aid project for Tibetan medicine, XZ2022ZR-ZY16(Z).