Middle-aged women with disordered eating style more likely to experience symptoms of stress urinary incontinence
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Eating behavior and consuming certain foods are associated with perceived pelvic floor disorders, according to a study recently published in Women’s Health.
Mari A. Kuutti, from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional, observational study involving 1,098 Finnish women aged 47 to 55 years to examine the associations of eating behavior with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders.
The researchers found that middle-aged women with disordered eating style were more likely to experience the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence and constipation or defecation difficulties (odds ratios, 1.5 and 1.4, respectively) in adjusted models. The associations were abolished by the addition of body mass index to the models. Regardless of eating style, more frequent consumption of ready-made, highly processed foods and fast foods was independently associated with symptoms of stress urinary incontinence (odds ratios, 1.5 and 1.5); consumption of ready-made foods was associated with urgency urinary incontinence symptoms (odds ratio, 1.4). There was an independent association seen for daily consumption of fruits with symptoms of stress urinary incontinence (odds ratio, 0.8). Independent of eating style, daily consumption of porridge was associated with symptoms of constipation or defecation difficulties (odds ratio, 1.7). There was an inverse association for alcohol consumption with constipation and defecation difficulties (odds ratio, 0.9). Lower odds for stress urinary incontinence were seen for women with overall higher-quality diets.
“Since we found the disordered eating style and some dietary items to be associated with perceived pelvic floor disorders, our study justifies further studies with longitudinal designs to investigate causality,” the authors write.
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