Screening of urinary incontinence in female dancers-A cross sectional study

Abstract

Background and Objective: Urinary Incontinence (UI) is involuntary loss of urine which lead to withdrawal from activities and is considered as a barrier for life-long participation in various activities. Hence, study aimed to know the incidence of urinary incontinence in female dancers to that of non-dancers of same age group in Belagavi city. The study also aimed to find the correlation between the type of dance, intensity of dance and BMI of dancers to that of urinary incontinence. Materials and Methods: An open ended sample of female dancers, practicing various dance forms at recreational, competitive center and physiotherapy department with age ranging from 18-25 years were screened for UI for duration of six months. Results: Overall, 124 females were screened out of which 62 subjects were dancers and 62 were non dancers (age matched control) and 14 female dancers (22.5%) reported urine loss while participating in their various dance forms. Hip hop had highest incidence about 50% incontinence followed with Bharatnatyam 28% with p<0.0015. The BMI of dancers with respect to dance was evaluated and p<0.001. Urinary incontinence according to training period in 1-5 years, 6-10 years and >11 years training period groups was 18.18, 27.59 and 18.18% with p<0.0002, respectively and suggested that urinary incontinence increases with respect to training period. Conclusion: The study concluded that 22.5% of female dancers experienced urinary incontinence, BMI and training period of dancers showed to have positive correlation with urinary incontinence.