Disordered eating liked to pelvic floor disorders in middle-aged women

Eating behaviour is associated with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders in middle-aged women, new research has found.

For example, higher consumption of highly processed ready-made foods and fast food increased the risk for experiencing symptoms of stress and urgency urinary incontinence.

Higher consumption of fruits and an overall higher quality diet decreased the risk for stress urinary incontinence.

The prevalence of pelvic floor disorders increases as women approach their menopausal years.

Estrogen deprivation during menopause, natural aging, reproductive history, and factors increasing intra-abdominal pressure may lead to structural and functional failure in the pelvic floor.

In addition, lifestyle choices such as quality of nutrition and eating behaviour may have a significant effect on the mechanisms of pelvic floor disorders.

Doctoral researcher Mari Kuutti is from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä.

Kuutti said: “Eating behaviour has been minimally studied as a potential risk factor for pelvic floor disorders.

“We studied how disordered eating can affect the onset of the symptoms.”

Disordered eating includes overeating, restrictive eating as well as alternating between the two behaviours.

Kuutti said: “We found that women who reported disordered eating were more likely to experience the symptoms of pelvic floor disorders than were women who had reported normal eating,”

The disorders studied were stress urinary incontinence, urgency urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and constipation and defecation difficulties.

Over half of the participants of the study had symptoms of pelvic floor disorders. Most common was stress urinary incontinence.

The study revealed that eating behaviour and consuming some dietary items were associated with onset of the symptoms of pelvic floor disorders.

Kuutti said: “We studied the potential negative and positive associations of common Finnish food items with the symptoms of pelvic floor disorders.

“For example, higher consumption of highly processed ready-made foods and fast food increased the risk for experiencing the symptoms of stress and urgency urinary incontinence.

Higher consumption of fruits and overall higher quality diet decreased the risk for stress urinary incontinence.”