Abstract
Background
Physical activity and macronutrient intake, important contributors to energy balance, may be independently associated with female urinary incontinence (UI).
Methods
We evaluated the association of baseline self-reported physical activity and macronutrient intake, via food-frequency questionnaire, with incident UI subtypes after 3 years among 19,741 post-menopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study. Odds ratios (OR) for incident urgency, stress, and mixed UI were calculated using multivariable logistic regression.
Results
Women who reported total physical activity (MET-hours/week) ≥30 vs <0.1 were 16% less likely to develop urgency UI (OR=0.84; 95% CI 0.70, 1.00) and 34% less likely for mixed UI (OR=0.66; 0.46, 0.95), although linear trends were no longer statistically significant after adjusting for baseline weight and weight change (P-trend=0.15 and 0.16, respectively). The association between physical activity and incident stress UI was less consistent. Higher uncalibrated protein intake was associated with increased odds of incident urgency UI (≥19.4% versus <14.1% of energy intake OR=1.14; 95% CI 0.99, 1.30; P-trend=0.02), while confidence intervals were wide and included 1.0 for calibrated protein intake. Other macronutrients were not associated with urgency UI and macronutrient intake was not associated with incident stress or mixed UI (P-trend>0.05 for all).
Conclusions
Among post-menopausal women, higher physical activity was associated with lower risk of incident urgency and mixed UI, but not stress UI, independent of baseline weight and weight change. Higher protein intake was associated with increase urgency UI, but no associations were observed between other macronutrient and UI subtypes.
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