Relationship of Body Composition and Urinary Incontinence in Women: A Cross-Sectional Case-Control Study

To describe the profile of segmental body composition through the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method in continent and incontinent women and analyze the association between overweight/obesity and urinary incontinence (UI).

This was a cross-sectional case-control study that included women aged between 20 and 65 years, who were not pregnant, were outside of their menstrual period, without neurological, psychiatric, orthopedic, or cardiac comorbidities. The presence of UI was verified using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form. Segmental body composition was assessed with BIA. The independent Student t test was used to compare body composition means between groups, and multivariate logistic regression was used to test the association between body composition and UI.

The study included 62 women with a mean age of 34.4 ± 11.6 years, of whom 27 (43.5%) had UI. Of these, 15 (55.6%) were nulliparous and had a body mass index of 25.1 ± 4.2 kg/m, similar to that of continent women, who had a body mass index of 23.6 ± 3.9 kg/m (P=0.16). The sociodemographic and obstetric data were similar among continent and incontinent women. With respect to the parameters of segmental body fat, visceral fat, and waist circumference, incontinent women presented higher values than the continent group. In the final multivariate analysis model, women with high levels of visceral fat had a 1.13-times higher likelihood of presenting UI.

In adult women, there is an association between the level of visceral fat assessed by BIA and complaints of urinary loss, being more evident in overweight and obese women.