Morbidity of Uterine Prolapsed among the Women in the Chakrata Block of Dehradun District

Abstract

Background: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a common health problem affecting nearby 40% of multi Para women above 35 years of age. The life-time risk for women to undergo surgery for the management of POP is about 11%.  30% of these (11%) women will need additional surgery due to prolapse recurrence. The risk of POP increases with the number of vaginal births and is higher in older and obese women. POP has significant negative effects on a woman’s quality of life, ranging from physical discomfort, psychological and sexual complaints to occupational and social restrictions. Methods: This is a community based cross sectional descriptive study carried out for the 141 women, who experienced at least one time pregnancy. The study was conducted in two phases, in the first phase; a structured questionnaire was prepared and screening of cases done by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) at household level. In the second phase, outreach examination camps were conducted for the screened cases by a Gynecologist. The degree of severity of cases was decided using a Standard Score System. Results: The finding of the study revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 36.3 years. Majority of the respondents (41.5%) were of age >36 years and only 1% were of the below 20 years. The majority of the respondents were from SC/ST community with 43% schedule caste and 38.7% schedule tribe. A good percentage of respondents were literate (58.8%), with 17% respondent having education level of primary and junior and 1.9% having above high school level. 37.7% of respondents were occupied with agriculture activities and 46.7 were housewife. The major source of income for more than half of the respondents was agriculture (56.6%). Two third of the respondents were living in joint families households (74.2 %).  Conclusions: The study revealed that the higher burden of uterus prolapse is found in those with poor economic background, those aged above 30 years and with more than two deliveries conducted at home. Median time for prolapse suffering was two years. The age of respondents, occupation, age at first birth, place of delivery, work load during the peurperium period, time to resume work after delivery, number of delivery and person providing assistant during delivery are the key associated factors.