Stress Urinary Incontinence At Young Active Swimmers

Stress urinary incontinence describes an unwanted leakage of urine when the intra-abdominal pressure is heightened. Intra-abdominal pressure is chronically raised in professional swimming. The purpose of this research is to analyse how common stress urinary incontinence is with active swimmers between the ages of 18 and 23, and also to find out how much pelvic floor muscle training is included in high intensity swimming training. Descriptive and quantitative research methods were used with the help of a questionnaire and the ICIQ short form. The sample for the research included 28 young swimmers from 5 different Slovenian swimming clubs. Descriptive variables were measured in frequency, numerical ones in standard deviation and averages. Furthermore, the Fischer exact test was used for comparison of two other descriptive variables. There were no significant statistical differences between the two groups, neither in age nor the frequency of training. Results showed a 53,6% prevalence of stress urinary incontinence (100% in training, 0% in competition). Pelvic floor muscle training was rarely or occasionally used in the training regime. 85,71% of the respondents expressed a familiarity with correct pelvic floor muscle contractions. Given the results, it would be imperative to include pelvic floor muscle training in regular swimming training plans, as well as better informing young swimmers about pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.