Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Gastroenterol.
Sec. Therapy in Gastroenterology
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgstr.2024.1398102

Estimating the Number of Canadians Suffering from Fecal Incontinence Using Pooled Prevalence Data From Meta-Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Ava Oliaei Ava Oliaei 1Dean Elterman Dean Elterman 2,3Salar Sadri Salar Sadri 2Eric Zimmerman Eric Zimmerman 4Padina Pezeshki Padina Pezeshki 5Bilal Chughtai Bilal Chughtai 6Hamid Sadri Hamid Sadri 5*
  • 1 McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
  • 2 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 3 Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 4 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 5 Medtronic (Canada), Brampton, Ontario, Canada
  • 6 Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background and Aim: Fecal incontinence (FI) is defined as the unintended loss of solid or liquid stool. FI adversely affects the patient's quality of life. However, due to stigma, lack of awareness, and underdiagnosis, there is a notable gap in the knowledge regarding its prevalence. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature reporting on FI prevalence and estimate the number of people afflicted by FI.Methods: A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, using the Embase, MEDLINE, CINHAL, and PubMed databases to identify relevant publications in the English language. Two reviewers independently screened the articles and extracted data. The reference sections and content of the review papers were also evaluated. Thirty-two articles were selected and included. A meta-analysis of proportions was performed using RStudio software. A sub-analysis was conducted to account for the variation between sample population age groups to minimize heterogeneity. The pooled prevalence was extrapolated to the Canadian population and a sample of ten densely populated countries to estimate the number of people affected by FI.The Mean pooled FI prevalence in men and women was 7% (95% CI: 6-9%) and 10% (95% CI: 8-12%), respectively. The sub-analysis mean pooled prevalence of FI in men and women was 8% (95% CI: 6-10%) and 10% (95% CI: 8-12% ), respectively. The authors estimate that between 1 and 1.5 million Canadians and 320 to 500 million people in the ten most populous countries suffer from FI.Fecal incontinence is a prevalent underdiagnosed condition requiring appropriate and timely treatment to improve a patient's quality of life.

    Keywords: Systematic review, Fecal Incontinence, Prevalence, Meta-analysis, Population estimate

    Received: 08 Mar 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Oliaei, Elterman, Sadri, Zimmerman, Pezeshki, Chughtai and Sadri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hamid Sadri, Medtronic (Canada), Brampton, Ontario, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.