Prediction models for postpartum stress urinary incontinence: A systematic review

Postpartum stress urinary incontinence significantly impacts the quality of life and the physical and mental health of women. A reliable predictive model for postpartum stress urinary incontinence can serve as a preventive tool. Currently, there have been numerous studies developing predictive models to assess the risk of postpartum stress urinary incontinence, but the quality and clinical applicability of these models remain unknown.

To systematically review and evaluate existing models for predicting stressful postpartum risks.

PubMed, EBSCO, The Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, SinoMed, and VIP Data databases were systematically searched from the time of database construction to October 2023. Two researchers used Critical appraisal and data extraction for systematic reviews of prediction modeling studies: the CHARMS checklist for data extraction. Three researchers used The Prediction Model Risk of Bias Assessment Tool (PROBAST) checklist for bias and applicability assessment.

Eight papers including ten postpartum stress urinary incontinence prediction models were finalized. The most common predictors in the prediction models were urinary incontinence (UI) during pregnancy, followed by mode of delivery, Maternal age, parity, and UI before pregnancy. Nine of the prediction models reported discrimination with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) or C-index between 0.680 and 0.850. All included studies were at high risk of bias, mainly due to mishandling of continuous predictors, unreported or mishandled missing data, and inadequate assessment of predictive model performance.

Postpartum stress urinary incontinence risk prediction models are in the initial development stage, and existing prediction models have a high risk of bias and poor modeling methodological quality, which may hinder their clinical application. In the future, healthcare practitioners should follow the norms of predictive model development and reporting to develop risk prediction models with superior predictive performance, low risk of bias, and easy clinical application.