Objective
To estimate the lifetime risk of stress incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse surgery, or both using current, population-based surgical rates from 2007–2011.
Methods
We used a 2007–2011 a U.S. claims and encounters database. We included women aged 18–89 years and estimated age-specific incidence rates and cumulative incidence (lifetime risk) of stress incontinence surgery, pelvic organ prolapse surgery, and either incontinence or prolapse surgery, with 95% confidence intervals. We estimated lifetime risk until the age of 80 to be consistent with prior studies.
Results
From 2007–2011, we evaluated 10,177,480 adult women who were followed for 24,979,447 person-years. Among these women, we identified 65,397 incident, or first, stress incontinence, and 57,755 incident prolapse surgeries. Overall, we found that the lifetime risk of any primary surgery for stress incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse was 20.0% (95%CI 19.9, 20.2) by the age of 80 years. Separately, the cumulative risk for stress incontinence surgery was 13.6% (95%CI 13.5, 13.7) and that for pelvic organ prolapse surgery was 12.6% (95%CI 12.4, 12.7). For age-specific annual risk, stress incontinence demonstrated a bimodal peak at age 46 and then again at age 70–71 with annual risks of 3.8 and 3.9 per 1,000 women, respectively. For pelvic organ prolapse, the risk increased progressively until ages 71 and 73 when the annual risk was 4.3 per 1,000 women.
Conclusion
Based on a U.S. claims and encounters database, the estimated lifetime risk of surgery for either stress incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse in women is 20.0% by the age of 80.