Prevalence, Awareness, and Understanding of Pelvic Floor Disorders in Adolescent and Young Women

Abstract

Objectives The objective of this study was to characterize symptom prevalence, awareness of pelvic floor disorders in family/friends, and understanding of factors contributing to the development of pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) in women ages 19–30. Methods A cross-sectional study via online questionnaire survey of female students ages 19–30 enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Results of “adolescent women” ages 19–24 were compared to “young women” age 25–30. Results 1092 questionnaires were completed with the mean age being 23.5 ± 3.1 years old. The overall rate of urinary incontinence (UI) was 10.3% without a difference between adolescent and young women (p=0.61). There were no differences in rates of urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) (p=0.061), stress urinary incontinence (SUI) (p=0.29), or pelvic organ prolapse (POP) symptoms (p=0.56) between groups. There was no difference between groups in awareness of family members with UI, fecal incontinence (FI) or POP symptoms (p≥0.24). However, logistic regression showed that the young women were more likely to have received education regarding UI (aOR 2.6, 95% CI 1.8–3.6), FI (aOR 3.3, 95% CI 2.2–4.8), POP (aOR 2.9, 95% CI 2.1–4.2) and have greater understanding regarding causes of UI (aOR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7–4.8), FI (aOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1–2.3 and POP (aOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3–2.9). Conclusions Women ages 25–30 had more awareness and understanding of pelvic floor disorders compared to adolescent females. These data may have implications for primary prevention strategies of pelvic floor disorders.

Pelvic floor muscle function and quality of life in postmenopausal women with and without pelvic floor dysfunction

“…Most studies in PFD actually use manometry, dynamometry and ultrasound (19,20). However, the Oxford standardized scale is probably the most frequently used worldwide in physical therapy and routine clinical evaluation (1,9,21,22). It has both good reproducibility, inter-examiner and test-retest reliability, and internal and external validity (22,23).…”

Do Women have Adequate Knowledge about Pelvic Floor Dysfunctions? A Systematic Review

“…Mandimika et al (2014), 17 Good et al (2013), 18 and Morhason-Bello et al (2012) 19 Low access to information Neels et al (2016), 11 Parden et al (2016), 12 and Dunivan et al (2015) 13…”

“…Furthermore, discussion about PFD at schools was also low (1.9-6.5%) within this group, and 29.4% of the adolescents would want to know more about the topic. Parden et al12 have shown that even with low rates of…”

Relationship between aerobic capacity and pelvic floor muscles function: a cross-sectional study

“…Women were recruited through newspaper advertisements, internet announcements and distribution of flyers to the community. In order to be eligible, women had to be 18 years old or more ( 9 , 10 ), be eutrophic according to body mass index (BMI) ( 19 ), and could not present urinary incontinence and/or prolapse of pelvic organs that affect the vaginal opening, according to the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POPQ) standard scoring system, nor pelvic surgery history. Women were excluded from the study if they did not present at least a flicker of PFM contraction, i.e.…”

“…In the treatment of stress urinary incontinence, pelvic floor muscles (PFM) strength training is considered the gold standard therapeutic approach ( 7 ), since urinary incontinence (UI) may be caused by PFM weakness and/or decreased awareness ( 8 ). It is now known that women of almost all age groups lack awareness of the pelvic floor muscles, which results in weakness of these muscles, regardless of age ( 9 , 10 ).…”