Objective: To determine the diabetes- and obesity-related risks for surgically managed stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
Research design and methods: This twin cohort study used the Swedish Twin Register to identify 8,443 female twin pairs born from 1926 through 1958. The association between diabetes and pelvic floor surgery was estimated while taking into account the correlated (twin) structure of the data.
Results: For type 1 and type 2 diabetes, no significant associations were observed for stress urinary incontinence (odds ratio [OR] 1.0 [95% CI 0.1-9.2] and 2.0 [1.0-4.0], respectively). There were no cases of prolapse surgery in type 1 diabetic subjects, and for type 2 diabetes the risk estimate was nonsignificant (1.6 [1.0-2.7]). BMI >25 kg/m(2), age >or=60 years, and childbirth were the strongest risk factors for having incontinence surgery.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that diabetes is not associated with stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse surgery.