The Research and Ethics Committee of Al-Ain Medical District in UAE (CRD 82/10, 12/01/2012) gave approval for this study after ensuring that all necessary ethics and consent standards were met. All women with antenatal incontinence gave written informed consent to participate in the follow-up after delivery. Our study was reported according to the criteria of the STROBE checklist.[10 (link)]This was a prospective cohort study completing the follow-up of all nulliparous women recruited antenatally from 2012 to 2014 in Al-Ain Hospital, Al-Ain, UAE, reported in a previously published paper.[11 (link)] The current study included all consecutive nulliparous women with urinary incontinence for the first time during pregnancy presenting to the hospital for childbirth and who were followed up for 3 months after discharge.
The questionnaire design was described in detail previously.[11 (link)] To overcome the language barrier, both English and Arabic questionnaires were prepared. The questionnaires contained separate sections on sociodemographic history, medical history, and the characteristics of pregnancy, childbirth and 3 months postpartum. The questionnaire was piloted and revised accordingly. Special training was given to the interviewers about the questionnaire and the techniques of interviewing. We made sure that its items were simple and easy to answer by testing them in a pilot study on volunteers, which was conducted by our healthcare team. Our publications using this questionnaire demonstrates its usefulness.[12 (link)–14 ] We did not perform urodynamic studies and depended on the responses of the questionnaire to define the nature of the incontinence. Basic characteristics captured in the questionnaire were age, occupation, education level, and smoking history. Characteristics during pregnancy were urinary tract infection, diabetes, chronic chest problems (cough), chronic constipation, and smoking. Data about pelvic floor muscles exercise and consultation by a physiotherapist during the pregnancy, labor type, duration of labor, and mode of delivery were collected. Post-delivery characteristics included urinary tract infection after the delivery and the child’s birth weight.
The patients who were nulliparous pregnant women with urinary incontinence during pregnancy were divided into 2 groups depending on the postpartum urinary incontinence status at 3 months. The 2 groups were compared using Fisher exact test for categorical data and Mann–Whitney U test for continuous data with a significance threshold P < .05. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS version 26, Chicago, IL).
The questionnaire design was described in detail previously.[11 (link)] To overcome the language barrier, both English and Arabic questionnaires were prepared. The questionnaires contained separate sections on sociodemographic history, medical history, and the characteristics of pregnancy, childbirth and 3 months postpartum. The questionnaire was piloted and revised accordingly. Special training was given to the interviewers about the questionnaire and the techniques of interviewing. We made sure that its items were simple and easy to answer by testing them in a pilot study on volunteers, which was conducted by our healthcare team. Our publications using this questionnaire demonstrates its usefulness.[12 (link)–14 ] We did not perform urodynamic studies and depended on the responses of the questionnaire to define the nature of the incontinence. Basic characteristics captured in the questionnaire were age, occupation, education level, and smoking history. Characteristics during pregnancy were urinary tract infection, diabetes, chronic chest problems (cough), chronic constipation, and smoking. Data about pelvic floor muscles exercise and consultation by a physiotherapist during the pregnancy, labor type, duration of labor, and mode of delivery were collected. Post-delivery characteristics included urinary tract infection after the delivery and the child’s birth weight.
The patients who were nulliparous pregnant women with urinary incontinence during pregnancy were divided into 2 groups depending on the postpartum urinary incontinence status at 3 months. The 2 groups were compared using Fisher exact test for categorical data and Mann–Whitney U test for continuous data with a significance threshold P < .05. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS version 26, Chicago, IL).
