Main Findings
In this study, we focused on the association of previous and current physical activity with pelvic floor disorders in middle-aged women. Over half of the women in our total analytical sample had symptoms of urinary or fecal incontinence, constipation or defecation difficulties, or pelvic organ prolapse. We found that higher current physical activity was associated with lower risk of stress urinary incontinence, but association did not remain after adding confounding factors into the same model. Current physical activity was not associated with any other pelvic floor disorder. Women with history of competitive sports were more likely to experience urge urinary incontinence according to pooled simple and multiple logistic regression models controlled with confounders. Early adulthood competitive sport participation did not associate with other pelvic floor dysfunction types. Similarly, women with history of regular physical activity were more likely to experience fecal incontinence but no significant associations were found for other pelvic floor disorders.