Female Pelvic Floor Disorders in Northern India: Uncommon or Underreported?

Pelvic floor disorders (PFD) have been on the rise, with an overall prevalence of 11%-35.5% globally. They develop due to various factors like increasing number of deliveries and increasing age, leading to progressive weakening of the soft tissues and pelvic support system. They encompass a variety of symptoms involving the urinary, uterovaginal, and colorectal compartments. Patients either have symptoms isolated to single or multiple compartments concomitantly.

We found very limited literature denoting the exact prevalence of PFD in India. Due to the hesitant nature of females in a developing country like India and having a social taboo disclosing the common illnesses of females, these disorders are commonly hidden by females. We intended to know the prevalence of PFD in the state of Uttarakhand and create awareness in patients.

It was an intramurally funded project conducted over a duration of two years.  Methods and material: In the Doiwala block of Dehradun district, there are five PHCs. These 700 samples were proportionally allocated in these five PHCs as per the PPS method. All women 18 years of age and above (Doiwala Block), women residing in field areas, and those willing to participate were included in the study.

The data was analyzed using statistical and inferential statistics. Data analysis was done using IBM Corp. Released 2015. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.  Results and conclusions: We reported a higher prevalence of 56% in females of Uttarakhand, with increasing parity being the direct cause. Also, we found the majority of females with PFD to have them in moderate severity. Also, 89.6% of females had symptoms in all three compartments. We compared the two questionaries and concluded that PFDI 20 was better and more detailed than PFQI-7.