March 2020 · Volume 9 · Issue 3 Page 956 International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics and Gynecology Joshi D et al. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Mar;9(3):956-959 www.ijrcog.org pISSN 2320-1770 | eISSN 2320-1789 Original Research Article A study to determine the prevalence of urinary incontinence in antenatal women at a tertiary care centre in central India Deepa Joshi, Sheetal Achale*, Nilesh Dalal, Alka Patel INTRODUCTION The urinary incontinence (UI) is currently defined by the International Continence Society (ICS) as the “complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine”. The characterization of the UI is classified as effort UI (EUI) - simultaneous urinary loss to effort, exercise, coughing or sneezing; urgent UI-involuntary loss of urine accompanied by or immediately preceded by sudden and uncontrollable urge to urinate, difficult to be delayed or mixed (MUI)-when there are signs and symptoms of both types. 1 It has been reported to affect 5-69% of women. 2 The most common form of UI in women is stress urinary incontinence (SUI), followed by mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) and urge urinary incontinence (UUI). 3 The prevalence of UI is higher in specific subgroups, such as pregnant women, The incidence of UI is significantly higher in adults and appears two to four times more often in women than in men. The prevalence of urinary incontinence in women varies between 12% and 56%. 4,5 Recent studies indicate that the UI is a high prevalence problem or worldwide public health disorder Pregnancy is a well-known risk factor for UI, this is due to the physiologic and anatomic changes, especially in the third trimester, that can result in weak pelvic floor muscles (PFM). 6,7 Other risk factors could be the age of the mother, parity, previous delivery, ABSTRACT Background: Urinary incontinence is a common condition in pregnancy and postpartum. There are more than a thousand articles on urinary incontinence (UI) in pregnancy but very limited literature from Indian subcontinent is available. Incidence and prevalence figures of UI in association with pregnancy vary substantially. Not many reviews have focused solely on incidence and prevalence of UI in association with pregnancy. Prevalence of UI in pregnancy ranges from 32% to 64%. Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, MGM Medical College and M.Y. Hospital, Indore over the period of 6 months on 1000 pregnant women who were following antenatal care (ANC) clinic. Pregnant women, who were severely sick, diagnosed with kidney or urinary infection and vaginal infections women were excluded from the study. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. After the purpose of the study was explained, written consent was obtained from each voluntary participant. This study was approved by institutional ethical committee. The data was recorded in predesign coded case report form and statistical analysis was performed using the STATA 12.1. Results: In the present study the prevalence of urinary incontinence reported is 16.4% of women during pregnancy. Conclusions: In this study the prevalence of UI during current pregnancy was found to be lower compared to previous studies conducted. The previous history of surgery, constipation, obesity and respiratory problems were found to be significantly associated with UI during pregnancy. Keywords: Antenatal women, Quality of life, Urinary incontinence Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, MGM Medical College, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India Received: 24 January 2020 Accepted: 31 January 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Sheetal Achale, E-mail: sheetal.achale@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20200518