Impact of educational workshops to increase awareness of pelvic floor dysfunction and integrate preventive lifestyle habits.

OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to evaluate the impact of group pelvic floor education workshops on participants' knowledge, their satisfaction, and the modification of their urinary and digestive behaviors, and to compare health care providers' (HCP) knowledge with that of the general population. METHODS: For this prospective observational study, group pelvic floor education workshops were proposed between May 2021 and June 2022 in a web-conference format. Each workshop covered pelvic floor anatomy and physiology, urinary and digestive physiology as well as risk factors of PFD and preventive measures. At the start and the end of the workshops, participants completed a questionnaire on their knowledge and their beliefs about the pelvic floor. Questions about their satisfaction were asked at the end of the workshops. A 2-month questionnaire assessed changes in urinary and digestive habits and whether participants had talked about the workshop around them. RESULTS: A total of 856, with an average age 40.1 years, participated and completed the questionnaires before and after the workshops; 694 responded at 2 months. The education workshops significantly improved knowledge about the pelvic floor in the "HCP" and "non-HCP" groups. At 2 months, 591 participants (85.2%) 85.2% had talked about the workshop content; 557 (80.3%) reported having changed, or planned to change, their urinary behaviors and 495 (71.3%) their defecatory behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Pelvic floor education workshops can increase level of knowledge and thus limit risky behaviors for the pelvic floor. The high rate of participation and the satisfaction of the participants shows the interest for the theme.

Obstetrical anal sphincter injuries and symptoms after subsequent deliveries: A 60 patient study.

INTRODUCTION: More than half of women with a history of prior obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) will have another pregnancy. Currently, little is known concerning post-partum perineal symptoms in cases of a subsequent vaginal delivery. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of perineal functional symptoms following a vaginal delivery after OASIS while comparing them to patients who did not have a subsequent delivery. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Retrospective cohort study between January 2000 and December 2011. A questionnaire was sent by post to all women who sustained an OASIS at the Poitiers University Hospital, France. Perineal functional symptoms and quality of life were assessed using validated self-administered questionnaires: Female Pelvic Floor Questionnaire, Pescatori anal incontinence score, EuroQoL five-dimension score, and pain visual analogue scale. RESULTS: 159 women of 237 contacted (67%) responded to the questionnaire, on average 46 months after the delivery complicated with OASIS. 135 (85%) of women had a 3rd degree laceration and 24% a 4th degree laceration. 99 women (63%) did not have an ensuing delivery since the event (OASIS - No Subsequent Delivery: SD-). 60 women (37%) had a subsequent delivery (OASIS -Subsequent Delivery: SD + ), with 53 (88%) having a vaginal birth. Among these women, 3 (6%) experienced a recurrent OASIS. The mean score for perineal symptoms (FPFQ) was 6.95 in the OASIS-SD (-) group and 7.40 in the OASIS-SD (+) group (p = 0.64). No significant difference in quality of life (EuroQol 5D) was found between the two groups (p = 0.91). CONCLUSION: We did not observe a deterioration of perineal functional symptomatology after vaginal delivery in women with known prior OASIS, compared to women who did not have a subsequent delivery. Even if the risk of occurrence of these lesions is higher in women with history of previous OASIS compared to those without perineal injury, it is still comparable to incidence among primiparous women.

Cultural adaptation of the female pelvic floor questionnaire (FPFQ) into French.

AIMS: The Female pelvic floor questionnaire (FPFQ) is a self-administered tool on pelvic floor function. Our aim was to carry out a cultural adaptation of the FPFQ into French and to assess its psychometric properties. METHODS: After cross-cultural adaptation into French, acceptability and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed through a sample of 56 women in a test-retest. Discriminative construct validity was evaluated by comparing the results obtained by the FPFQ to those of other validated questionnaires. Longitudinal follow-up of the 282 pregnant women included in the PreNatal Pelvic floor Prevention trial (3PN) was used to analyze responsiveness. RESULTS: The proportion of missing data did not exceed 4% for questions about bladder function, bowel function, and pelvic organ prolapse; 10% for issues related to sexual function. Question 9 was considered difficult to understand by 14% of women. After rewriting, this issue was retested in a new sample of 52 women and presented no further problems. The intra-class correlation coefficient was greater than or equal to 0.7 for all domains during the test-retest. The FPFQ was strongly and significantly correlated (Spearman r > 0.5) with the other validated questionnaires. The French version of FPFQ recorded changes in urinary and sexual symptoms for the women involved in 3PN trial with a standardized response mean equal to 0.83 and 0.44, respectively. CONCLUSION: The French version of the FPFQ is self-administered, reliable, valid, and can detect a change in symptoms during follow-up. Neurourol. Urodynam. 36:253-258, 2017. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.