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Prevalence of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a Swedish population

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Abstract

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.

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Abbreviations

POP:

Pelvic organ prolapse

CI:

Confidence interval

OR:

Odds ratio

POPQ:

Pelvic organ quantification system

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Vårdal foundation (http://www.vardal.se).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Söder Hospital, 118 83, Stockholm, Sweden

    Gunilla Tegerstedt & Margareta Hammarström

  2. Statisticon, Uppsala, Stockholm, Sweden

    Marianne Maehle-Schmidt

  3. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Karolinska Institutet,  , Stockholm, Sweden

    Olof Nyrén

  4. Department KI, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Söder Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Gunilla Tegerstedt, Olof Nyrén & Margareta Hammarström

Authors
  1. Gunilla Tegerstedt
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  2. Marianne Maehle-Schmidt
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  3. Olof Nyrén
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  4. Margareta Hammarström
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Correspondence to Gunilla Tegerstedt.

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Tegerstedt, G., Maehle-Schmidt, M., Nyrén, O. et al. Prevalence of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a Swedish population. Int Urogynecol J 16, 497–503 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-005-1326-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-005-1326-1

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