Study sheds light on risk factors for urinary incontinence in females with chronic cough
China: In female patients with chronic cough, urinary incontinence (UI) is a common complication. Older age, chronic sinusitis, more severe cough, cough easily triggered by exercise and abdominal muscle pain due to cough are identified as risk factors for urinary incontinence. These are the results from a recent study published in BMC Pulmonary Medicine.
The researchers suggest that more attention should be paid to female chronic coughers with these risk factors in clinics. "To reduce the incidence of urinary incontinence, it is necessary for female patients to strengthen their pelvic floor muscle function in daily life," the researchers wrote in their study.
Previous studies have shown that female patients with chronic cough are more likely to suffer from urinary incontinence. However, not much data is available with regards of risks related with UI infemale patients with chronic cough. Considering this, Kefang Lai, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong, People's Republic of China, and colleagues aimed to investigate the risk factors of UI in adult female patients with chronic cough through comparison of the patients' demographic and clinical characteristics with UI and those without UI.
For this purpose, the researchers recruited female adult patients with chronic cough from the cough specialist clinic. Clinical characteristics and demographic information including BMI, age, duration of cough, cough severity, cough triggers, nature and timing of cough, concomitant symptoms, comorbidities and UI condition were collected.
Key findings of the study are as follows:
· A total of 700 female patients with the main symptom of chronic cough were included, of whom 50.1% presented with UI.
· As compared with patients without UI, patients with UI showed a longer mean age (years) (49.5 vs. 42.4), a more severe cough symptom (median of cough Visual Analogue Scale: 65 vs. 50), a higher prevalence of chronic sinusitis (17.6% vs. 8.6%), and combined with a higher incidence of abdominal muscle pain due to cough (39.6% vs. 18.7%).
· In addition, patients in UI group whose cough were more easily triggered by exercise (28.2% vs. 17.2%).
· Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated the above five variables were risk factors for UI in female adult patients with chronic cough.
The researchers concldue, severe cough, older age, combing with a higher proportion of chronic sinusitis and abdominal muscle pain, a cough easily triggered by exercise are identified as risk factors for urinary incontinence." "We should pay more attention to female chronic coughers with these risk factors in clinics."
Reference:
Yang, C., Feng, Z., Chen, Z. et al. The risk factors for urinary incontinence in female adults with chronic cough. BMC Pulm Med 22, 276 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-022-02069-w
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