Survey on awareness and knowledge towards pelvic floor muscles exercises among female university students

• Main Authors: Asri, Nur Afifah, Kamsan, Siti Salwana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IIUM Press 2023
• Subjects: RM695 Physical medicine. Physical therapy
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/103564/3/103564_Survey%20on%20awareness%20and%20knowledge.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/103564/; https://journals.iium.edu.my/ijahs/index.php/IJAHS/article/view/767/688

Pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) has been highlighted as one of the core components in managing pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD). As the incidence of PFD is reported to be high in the female population, it is still crucial to ensure that this population has adequate awareness and knowledge about PFME. To date, published studies on awareness and knowledge about PFME have focused on women who have a history of giving birth. Hence, this study aimed to determine the awareness and knowledge about PFME among nulliparous women, specifically students in IIUM Kuantan and to examine the association between awareness and knowledge of PFME among this population. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. The questionnaires on awareness and knowledge of PFME used in this study were adopted from previous studies. 133 respondents with a mean age of 22.19 (±1.21) years participated in this study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the awareness and knowledge of PFME, while the Chi-square test was used to examine the association between variables. The findings indicated that less than 50% of the respondents were aware and had knowledge of PFME, 48.1% and 42.9%, respectively. The awareness and knowledge of PFME were found to be statistically associated (p < 0.001), in which respondents who were aware of PFME also had knowledge of PFME. These results suggest a need to strategize a health education programme for PFME thatis accessible to a diverse female population.