Source: DGNews  |  Posted 1 year ago

By Jill Stein

TORONTO -- August 26, 2010 -- Higher vitamin D levels appear to be associated
with a decreased likelihood of urinary and/or faecal incontinence in women,
researchers said here August 25 at the Joint Annual Meeting of the
International Continence Society and International Urogynecological Association
(ICS-IUGA).

Samuel Badalian, MD, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York, and
colleagues assessed the associations between vitamin D levels and female
urinary and faecal incontinence using the 2005-2006 National Health and
Nutrition Examination (NHANES) survey data.

The NHANES survey included information on vitamin D intakes and circulating
25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations starting in 1988.

“It is well established that vitamin D deficiency has been associated with
numerous health problems,” the authors wrote in their poster presentation.
“Because vitamin D receptors are present in human muscle tissue, a direct
effect of vitamin D on muscle physiology is biologically plausible. Thus, it is
not surprising that vitamin D deficiency has long been clinically associated
with impaired muscle strength and loss of muscle mass.”

Given that vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency is epidemic among adults, it
is plausible that low vitamin status is a contributor to poor muscle strength
and may produce different pelvic floor disorders such as urinary and faecal
incontinence, they added.

The analysis included 1,881 nonpregnant women over 20 years of age in whom data
on both vitamin D levels and pelvic floor disorders were available.

In the study vitamin D levels <30 ng/mL were considered insufficient/deficient,
while vitamin D levels between 30 and 80 ng/mL were considered to be in the
normal range.

Overall, 22% of women reported urinary and/or faecal incontinence.

Mean vitamin D levels were significantly lower for women reporting urinary
and/or faecal incontinence regardless.

Further analysis revealed significantly decreased risks of urinary or faecal
incontinence with increasing vitamin D levels in all women aged older than 20
years (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86-0.99) and in
the subset of women aged 50 years and older (OR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.81-0.98).
In addition, the risk of urinary incontinence was significantly decreased in
women aged 50 years and older with vitamin D levels >30 ng/mL (P
=.022), translating into a 45% decreased risk of urinary incontinence with
vitamin D levels in the normal range.

The investigators said that their results suggest that treating pre- and
postmenopausal women for vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency may strengthen
pelvic muscles and potentially decrease the prevalence of urinary incontinence.

[Presentation title: Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in Women With
Urinary and Fecal Incontinence: Results From the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey. Abstract 378]