Incidence of postpartum diatasis recti abdominis in Chinese childbearing women – a meta analysis

  Objective  To evaluate the incidence of postpartum diatasis recti abdominis in Chinese childbearing women with meta analysis and to provide references for making clinical decision and policies on prenatal care, postpartum care and postpartum rehabilitation.

  Methods  We searched Embase, Pubmed, Web of science, China Biology Medicine (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang Database to collect cross-sectional studies on incidence of postpartum diatasis recti abdominis in Chinese childbearing women up to March 30, 2020. Two reviewers screened literatures retrieved, extracted relevant data, and evaluated the quality of the studies independently. STATA14.0 was used to merge and analyze the data quantitatively.

  Results  Among 12 857 participants of 5 studies included in the analysis, the incidence of postpartum diatasis recti abdominis was 45.14% (95% confidence interval: 29.72% – 59.62%). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that the incidence of postpartum diatasis recti abdominis was significantly higher among multiparas than among primiparas (53.78% vs. 12.50%, P < 0.001) and higher among puerperae undergoing cesarean section than among those with natural labour (51.78% vs. 39.72%, P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  The incidence of diatasis recti abdominis is relatively high and multiparity and cesarean section are main risk factors for the incidence among Chinese childbearing women. The results need to be concerned in prenatal and postpartum care and postpartum rehabilitation in the women.