Association between Sitting Time and Urinary Incontinence in the US Population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007 to 2018

Background Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common health problem that affects the life and health quality of millions of people in the US. We aimed to investigate the association between sitting time and UI. Methods Across-sectional survey of adult participants of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2018 was performed. Weighted multivariable logistic and regression models were conducted to assess the association between sitting time and UI. Results A total of 22916 participants were enrolled. Prolonged sitting time was associated with urgent UI (UUI, Odds ratio [OR] = 1.184, 95% Confidence interval [CI] = 1.076 to 1.302, P = 0.001). Compared with patients with sitting time shorter than 7 hours, moderate activity increased the risk of prolonged sitting time over 7 hours in the fully-adjusted model (OR = 2.537, 95% CI = 1.419 to 4.536, P = 0.002). Sitting time over 7 hours was related to male mixed UI (MUI, OR = 1.581, 95% CI = 1.129 to 2.213, P = 0.010), and female stress UI (SUI, OR = 0.884, 95% CI = 0.795 to 0.983, P = 0.026) in the fully-adjusted model. Conclusions Prolonged sedentary sitting time (> 7 hours) indicated a high risk of UUI in all populations, female SUI and male MUI. Compared with sitting time shorter than 7 hours, the moderate activity could not reverse the risk of prolonged sitting, which warranted further studies for confirmation.