Investigation of pelvic floor knowledge, awareness and healthcare seeking in women with urinary incontinence: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aim: Healthcare seeking by women with urinary incontinence is affected by many factors. However, the effect of pelvic floor awareness and knowledge on seeking health care is not clear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between pelvic floor awareness, urinary incontinence (UI) and pelvic floor knowledge levels and healthcare seeking in women with incontinence. Methods: A total of 178 women, 96 incontinent and 82 continent, were included in the study. The presence of UI was evaluated with Incontinence Questionnaires (3IQ), incontinence knowledge level with the Prolapse and Incontinence Knowledge Questionnaire (PIKQ-UI), and pelvic floor knowledge with the Pelvic Floor Health Knowledge Quiz (PFHKQ). Pelvic floor awareness and treatment seeking were measured with open-ended questions compiled from the literature. The Mann Whitney U, Chi-square and Kruskal Wallis tests were used. A value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were significant differences between the PIKQ-UI scores of incontinent women who answered yes or no to questions about pelvic floor awareness (p<.05) and seeking health care (p=0.039). The PIKQ-UI scores of incontinent women were higher than those of continent women (p=0.033). Incontinent and continent women had similar PFHKQ scores (p>0.05). A difference was observed in the purpose of seeking information about the pelvic floor between women with and without incontinence (p=0.002). Conclusions: The knowledge level of incontinent women with pelvic floor awareness and who seek health care was higher than that of incontinent women without pelvic floor awareness and who do not seek health care. Pelvic floor awareness in incontinent women may contribute to healthcare seeking and increase the level of knowledge about incontinence and pelvic floor.