Research on knowledge of women about pelvic floor and physiotherapy for pelvic floor disfunctions

The definition of pelvic floor, it's function, the existence of related problems, treatment techniques and that this problem is treated by physiotherapist is not known well enough by women. It is of crucial importance that women of all age groups should be enlightened on the topic. Therefore, evaluating womens recognition and awareness on pelvic floor, and planning studies accordingly is very important. The aim of this research is to eveluate the perception and awareness of women between 18-65 years of age. 220 volunteering women filled in an eveluation form besides doing a test on pelvic floor health in person, online or by e-mail in hybrid fashion. During the assesment, the results relating to women who had problem with understanding the questionnaire, who did'nt fiil in the form completely or who had serious orthopedic and mental handicap are not included. The participants were classified as 18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55 and 56-65 years of age in five groups. In the end it was found that %47,3 the women were nulliparous and %13,2 had frequency, %12 constipation, %8 pain in the pelvic area, %10,6 urgency and %21,2 had pelvic floor problems. %14,5 of the participants told they were shy about this problem. %85,5 told they would see doctor if they had this problem. Moreover; it has been observed that %45 of these women had heard about pelvic floor problems before, %30,5 know the exercise but %88,2 did not practise at all. In the function/disfunction test, which is one of the subsections ôf the pelvic floor health test, it was found that participants aged 18-25 (x=4.66) scored higher than the group of 36-45 (×=2.60) and 56-65 (×=2.14) (p=0.001; p<0.05). In the subsection of the test for risk and ethiology 18-25 years olds ( ×= 6.74) again scored higher than 36-45 (×=4.18) and 56-65 (×= 3.91) (p=0.006; p <0.05) . When diagnosis and treatment is considered, it was observed that participants aged 18-25 (×=5.07) , had more information than the other groups aged 36-45 (×=2.96) and 56-65 (×=2.91) (p=0.002; p< 0.05). When the pelvic floor test is eveluated as whole, the women aged 18-25 scored higher than the other age groups. In comparison to awareness and perception, the grup aged 18-25 also had higher counsciousness than other age groups. In conclusion, it has been observed that awareness and perception about pelvic floor disfunction and treatment is low and affected bye age. Participants of 18-25 years of age are more aware and perceptive than those in other age groups. This implies that in physiotherapy of pelvic floor, parameters of patients age must be taken into consideration. Especially for women in menopause trainings should be carried out to improve the awareness on pelvic floor health and before rehabilitation starts women should be given detailed training on pelvic muscles and pelvic floor rehabilitation