Prevalence of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a Swedish population.
Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in a Swedish urban female population. The cross-sectional study design included 8,000 randomly selected female residents in Stockholm, 30-79-year old. A postal questionnaire enquired about symptomatic POP, using a validated set of five questions, and about urinary incontinence and demographic data. Of 5,489 women providing adequate information, 454 (8.3%, 95% confidence interval 7.3-9.1%) were classified as having symptomatic POP. The prevalence rose with increasing age but leveled off after age 60. In a logistic regression model that disentangled the independent effects, parity emerged as a considerably stronger risk factor than age. There was a ten-fold gradient in prevalence odds of POP with parity, the steepest slope (four-fold) being between nulliparous and primiparous women. The prevalence of frequent stress urinary incontinence was 8.9% and that of frequent urge incontinence 5.9%. Out of the 454 women with prolapse, 37.4% had either or both types of incontinence.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Söder Hospital, 118 83 Stockholm, Sweden. Gunilla.Tegerstedt@sodersjukhuset.se
Gunilla
G
Tegerstedt
Marianne
M
Maehle-Schmidt
Olof
O
Nyrén
Margareta
M
Hammarström
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000150:complications; D014596:Uterine Prolapse / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology