Prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in obese versus non-obese nulligravida females

Nawara, Mai Medhat; Abdel Megeed, Abdel Megeed Ismail; Arafa, Arafa Mohamed Elsayed; Saleh, Abdelrahman Mohamed

doi:10.21608/egyfs.2025.441436

Prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in obese versus non-obese nulligravida females

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University

² Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University

³ Master degree, Resident of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University

⁴ Lecturer of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University

10.21608/egyfs.2025.441436

Abstract

Background: The etiology of UI is multifactorial, al-though many risk factors have been identiﬁed such as aging, obesity, pregnancy, parity, mode of delivery, hys-terectomy, smoking, neurological or biochemical chang-es, presence of diseases (e.g., diabetes, cognitive impair-ment, depression, urinary tract infection), in addition to increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and high-im-pact activities.
Objective: to assess the prevalence and risk factors of stress urinary incontinence in obese Versus lean Nulli-gravida females.
Methods: This comparative Cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital at Ain Shams Uni-versity Maternity Hospital from June 2023 till May 2024 and performed on 100 Obese and 100 Lean Nulligravida Females with the following inclusion criteria.
Results: Stress urinary incontinence was signiﬁcantly more frequent in the obese group than in the lean group. There were no signiﬁcant statistical differences between the studied groups regarding age and comorbidities. The obese group had signiﬁcantly more frequent and amount as well as unusual timings (asleep, physically active/ex-ercising, ﬁnished urinating and are dressed, no obvious reason and all the time). The obese group had signiﬁcant-ly higher interference with everyday life scores and total ICIQ-SF scores. BMI had signiﬁcant positive correlations with frequency score, amount score, interference with ev-eryday life score, and ICIQ score.
Conclusion: As evident from the current study, the study highlights the signiﬁcant association between obesity and the prevalence, frequency, and severity of stress urinary incontinence in nulligravida females. The results suggest that addressing obesity may be a key factor in mitigating the burden of SUI and improving the quality of life for affected individuals.

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