Abstract:
Background: Pelvic organ prolapse is a common health problem affecting up to 50% of
parous women with significant negative influence on their general health and quality of
life. It is defined as down ward descent of pelvic organs as a result of weakness or
damage to pelvic floor support structures. It is one of the major indications for major
gynaecological surgeries.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse and associated factors.
Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted by using both quantitative
and qualitative methods of data collection. Data was collected from records of
gynaecological cases managed in Wolayita Sodo University teaching and referral
hospital from April1, 2012 to March 31, 2015. A sample of 341 medical cards were
included, data collection format containing list of study variables were used during
record review and an in-depth interview was conducted with 10 conveniently selected
women who were diagnosed with POP and interviewed before the surgical intervention
where their card numbers were included in the sampling frame for quantitative study .
The data was entered in to EPI-data 3.1, analysed by using SPSS computer software
version 20.0. Frequency tables, graphs and descriptive summaries were used to present
the result, multivariate logistic regression was done to look for association between
dependent and independent variables. Variables were considered as significant where
p<0.05 in multivariate logistic regression.
Result: Findings of this study has shown that the prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse
was 216(66.9%) out of 323 major gynaecological surgeries. In multivariate analysis; age
of women, residence, occupation, parity, place of delivery shows statistically significant
association at (P-value <0.05).
Conclusion and recommendation: This study has shown that majority of women were
from rural areas and farmers who spend their time by working hard in farm land and at
home, grand multiparous and those who delivered at home without the assistance of
skilled birth attendants. Health education on risk factors, prevention of POP and
availability of treatment and helping women to get treatment, empowering women in
education, decision making on their fertility choices, income generation activities and
raising awareness of women on family planning and institutional delivery were strongly
recommended.
