Conhecimento de mulheres sobre os músculos do assoalho pélvico e sua relação com a capacidade de contração e sintomas de incontinência urinária: estudo transversal

Abstract

Knowledge about pelvic floor muscles (PFM) among women is low and many reasons can lead to this lack of knowledge, such as lack of access to health and educational forums, embarrassment in talking about this topic and concern with social stigma. These women still live with physical and emotional suffering, such as depression, loss of self-esteem and social isolation triggered by PFM dysfunctions, with urinary incontinence (UI) being the most prevalent among dysfunctions. In addition, women also lack good function of the PFM. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge about the PFM and its relation with the capacity to contract these muscles, and of the relation of knowledge with UI reports. This is an observational cross-sectional study. To verify the objectives, the knowledge questionnaire related to PFM, palpation and vaginal manometry and the ICIQ-UI-SF questionnaire were used. Statistical analyzes were performed using statistical software SAS 9.4 Software. The variables were presented in descriptive form. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the association between knowledge on PFM and age, BMI, parity, peak, mean and resistance of PFM and ICIQ-UI-SF score. Fisher's exact test was used to compare knowledge of the PFM with qualitative variables. Values of p≤0.05 were considered statistically significant. A total of 160 women were recruited from the city of Ribeirão Preto, of whom 27 did not attend the evaluation and 133 were included in the study. The mean age of the women was 53.3 (± 13.82), 73 (54.9%) were married, 84 (63.2%) were white, 65 (48.8%) attended school less than 8 years, 107 (80.5%) were multiparous, 83 (62.4%) presented complaints of UI symptoms and 123 (92.5%) had never performed PFM training. The women showed a low level of knowledge about the PFM. The mean score of the PFM knowledge questionnaire s was 0.48 (± 0.97). It was observed that 23.3% of the sample was not able to voluntarily contract their PFM. The values of peak, mean and duration of vaginal manometry were 39.1 cmH2O (± 23.7), 25.5 cmH2O (± 16.1) and 21.1 seconds (± 20.8), respectively. The mean ICIQ-UI-SF score was 7.1 (± 6.8). Among 40.6% of women who demonstrated the ability to contract their PFM, none had knowledge about it. No relationship was found between the knowledge and the contraction capacity of the PFM and between the knowledge and symptoms of UI. However, a correlation was found between knowledge about the PFM and age (r:-0,2044/ p: 0,01), between knowledge and parity (r:-0.19568/ p: 0.02) and an association was found between knowledge and years of education (p: 0,0012), and between knowledge and previous pelvic floor muscle training (p: <0,001).

Conhecimentos gerais sobre a saude do assoalho pelvico em mulheres de Guarapuava PR

“…Freitas 12 e Caagbay et al 16 O fato de apenas 60% das mulheres já ter olhado para sua região íntima com um espelho está envolto por diversos fatores, capazes de influenciar o conhecimento do corpo e a própria sexualidade.…”

“…Há relatos que após uma única atividade educativa sobre o mesmo já foi possível identificar melhora do nível de conhecimento e diminuição de disfunções ressaltando assim a importância de ações educativas em saúde as quais possibilitam a população feminina receber informação de qualidade, melhorando seu conhecimento sobre si mesma e seus corpos 12,11 .…”

Avaliação do nível de conhecimento sobre abordagem fisioterapêutica nas disfunções do assoalho pélvico em mulheres no município de Santarém-PA

“…O conhecimento acerca dos músculos do assoalho pélvico (MAP) entre mulheres é baixo e muitos motivos podem acarretar essa falta de conhecimento, como falta de acesso aos fóruns de saúde e educacionais, constrangimento ao falar sobre o assunto e preocupação com o estigma social. Essas mulheres ainda convivem com o sofrimento físico e emocional, como depressão, perda da autoestima e isolamento social desencadeado pelas disfunções dos MAP, sendo a incontinência urinária (IU) a mais prevalente entre as disfunções (Freitas, 2018).…”