Knowledge of pelvic floor disorders in a population of community-dwelling women.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to investigate baseline knowledge and demographic factors associated with a lack of knowledge about urinary incontinence (UI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP). STUDY DESIGN: This study was a community-based, cross-sectional survey of 431 racially and socioeconomically diverse women aged 19-98 years. The Prolapse and Incontinence Knowledge Questionnaire was used to assess participants' knowledge. Primary endpoints were the total number of correct responses on the UI and POP scales, respectively. Percentages of individuals answering each item or group of items correctly were explored as secondary outcomes. RESULTS: All women lacked knowledge proficiency about UI and POP, although knowledge about UI was slightly greater than knowledge about POP. Overall, 71.2% of subjects lacked UI proficiency (<80% correct), whereas 48.1% lacked proficiency in POP knowledge (<50% correct). Black women demonstrated significantly less knowledge about UI and POP than white women, both before and after adjustment for age, education, and household income. When combined into 1 group, Asian, Hispanic, and other women also showed significantly less UI and POP knowledge than white women. Most women who reported symptoms of UI had not received treatment for their problems. CONCLUSION: There is a global lack of knowledge about UI and POP among community-dwelling women, with more pronounced knowledge gaps among nonwhite women. UI and POP are chronic medical conditions that should be included in routine screening questions for well-woman care. Further studies are needed to explore how best to educate and improve women's awareness of these prevalent pelvic floor disorders.

The Vulvovaginal Symptoms Questionnaire: a questionnaire for measuring vulvovaginal symptoms in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a Vulvovaginal Symptoms Questionnaire (VSQ) to determine the symptoms, emotions, life impact, and sexual impact of vulvovaginal symptoms on postmenopausal women. METHODS: We developed a questionnaire that focuses on vulvovaginal symptoms based on modifications to Skindex-16, a validated questionnaire for measuring the impact of skin disease. We recruited postmenopausal women seeking routine gynecologic care to test the psychometric properties of the VSQ. Test-retest reliability was assessed 2 to 4 weeks after their initial recruitment and measured using intraclass coefficients. Four distinct a priori scales of the VSQ were developed: symptoms, emotions, life impact, and sexual impact. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to verify the four a priori scales by evaluating the goodness of fit of a final confirmatory factor analysis model. The internal consistency of the scales was assessed by calculating Cronbach's α coefficients. RESULTS: The VSQ is a 21-item written questionnaire with four scales: symptoms, emotions, life impact, and sexual impact. One hundred twenty postmenopausal women participated in the psychometric validation of the VSQ. The test-retest reliability measured by intraclass coefficients was 0.75, 0.60, 0.55, and 0.65 for the symptoms, emotions, life impact, and sexual impact scales, respectively. The goodness of fit of the confirmatory factor response model was confirmed. The Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.76, 0.87, 0.83, and 0.82 for the respective scales. CONCLUSIONS: The VSQ is a reliable and internally consistent instrument for measuring vulvovaginal symptoms in postmenopausal women.