1037 USE OF A NEW PELVIC DIARY TO DETECT UROGENITAL AND BOWEL DYSFUNCTIONS IN HEALTHY FEMALE ATHLETES

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The frequency-volume chart or micturition diary records a patientias voiding pattern during normal daily activities. The aim of this study was to formulate a comprehensive pelvic diary testing it on a selected population of healthy young female athletes in order to discover possible hidden pelvic dysfunctions. METHODS: The pelvic diary was designed after a structured literature review carried out from 1966 to December 2010 using MEDLINE via PubMed. In order to test this 7-day pelvic diary in a healthy control group a pilot observational prospective cohort study was planned, involving healthy young female athletes. Moreover all participants had to fill out the following validated symptom and healthrelated quality of life (HR-QoL) questionnaires: ICI-Q SF, OAB-q Short Form, P-QOL, Wexner score. RESULTS: From January 2012 to March 2012 a 7-day pelvic diary and the validated questionnaires were mailed to 422 female athletes by post. Replies were received from 284 of them. The mean age was 24.9 years with a mean body mass index of 20.9. Most of them were either volleyball (60.4%) or basketball (26.4%) players. Mean urinary frequency was 5.4 1.7. Mean compiled days were 6.4 1.5 days. Mean daily urine volume was 1119 600.9. Overall 46 subjects reported urinary incontinence episodes and 66 urgency. Moreover 12 athletes reported voiding problems. Concerning bowel symptom, 18 had faecal incontinence (77.8% gas incontinence) and 6 complained of pain during defecation. Regarding sexual and genital problems, 6 complained of dyspareunia and 10 had a feeling of heaviness in the vaginal area. The mean Wexner score was 6.01; the mean OAB-q SF score was 6.2. Concerning P-OQL domains we recorded the following mean score values: general health 30.1 10.18; prolapse impact 15.8 12.4; role limitation 15.2 13.0; physical limitation 14.9 12.8; personal relationships 6.5 11.2; emotions 15.4 14.3; sleep/energy 14.5 12.6; severity measures 15.6 14. CONCLUSIONS: Our comprehensive pelvic diary allowed us to detect hidden pelvic dysfunctions in young healthy women like validated symptom questionnaries. Because a validated urinary diary does not currently exist, in order to corroborate our preliminary results future steps will be to compare our pelvic questionnaire against an adequate gold standard such as the above mentioned validated symptom questionnaires.