Do women have an accurate perception of their pelvic floor muscle contraction? A cross-sectional study.

AIMS: To assess women's self-perception of their pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction and its agreement with an assessed PFM contraction. Further, to assess a possible correlation between women's self-perception and reports of urinary incontinence (UI) and between PFM contraction and severity of UI. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study including 82 women. The study was conducted in a basic healthcare unit in Brazil. PFM contraction was assessed by a physiotherapist and estimated by women using the Modified Oxford Scale (MOS). UI symptoms were assessed using a validated questionnaire (ICIQ-UI-SF). A descriptive analysis of the data was performed. The weighted κ coefficient, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and Fisher's exact test were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Eighty-two women with a mean age of 46.83 (±17.94) were analyzed. The majority (98.8%) believed they were able to voluntarily contract their PFM, but only 33% correctly estimated their PFM considering the examiner assessment as reference. No agreement (κ = 0.139, P = .087) was found between the examiner's classification and the women's estimation of their PFM contraction. Women's self-perception did not correlate with the ICIQ-IU-SF (r's = .011, P = .922). A moderate negative correlation was found between the assessed PFM contraction and the ICIQ-UI-SF score (r's = -.406, P = .00). CONCLUSION: Most of the women did not show an accurate self-perception of PFM contraction. No correlation between women's self-perception and the ICIQ-UI-SF score was found, but a negative correlation was found between the assessed PFM contraction and the ICIQ-UI-SF score.

Pelvic floor muscle knowledge and relationship with muscle strength in Brazilian women: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: There seems to be little knowledge about pelvic floor muscles (PFMs) in the general population; however, literature confirming this assertion is scarce, especially in developing countries. The present study hypothesized a low level of knowledge about PFMs in a sample of Brazilian women and a positive relationship between that knowledge and the ability to contract the PFMs, strength, and urinary continence. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study including 133 women. A questionnaire assessing knowledge about PFMs and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF) were applied. Vaginal palpation and manometry were used to assess PFM condition. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to test the association between PFM knowledge and continuous variables, and Fisher's exact test was used to compare the women's PFM knowledge with the categorical variables. RESULTS: A low level of PFM knowledge was observed in this sample, with a mean total score of 0.48 (±0.97). Vaginal manometry peak, mean, and duration values were 39.1 cmH2O (±23.7), 25.5 cmH2O (±16.1), and 21.1 s (±20.8) respectively. The ICIQ-UI-SF mean score was 7.1 (± 6.8). There were weak correlations between PFM knowledge and age (r -0.2044/ p = 0.01), and parity (r -0.19568/p = 0.02). PFM knowledge was higher among women with higher education levels (p = 0.0012) and those who had previously performed PFM training (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: The participants showed a low level of PFM knowledge. No relationship between PFM knowledge and ability to contract or prevalence of UI was observed.