SURVEY ON AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE TOWARDS PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLES EXERCISES AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Pelvic floor muscles exercises (PFME) has been highlighted as one of the core components in the management of pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD). As the incidence of PFD is reported high in women population, it still crucial to ensure that this population has adequate awareness and knowledge about PFME. Till date published studies on awareness and knowledge about PFME had focussed on porous women.  Hence the aims of this study were 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. A total of 133 respondents with a mean age of 22.19 (±1.21) years participated in this study. Descriptive statistic was used to analyse the awareness and knowledge on PFME while Chi-square test was used to examine the association between both variables. The findings indicated that less than 50% of the respondents were awareness and had knowledge on PFME, 48.1% and 42.9% respectively. The awareness and knowledge of PFME was found to be statistically associated (p < 0.001), in which respondents who were aware of PFME were significantly had knowledge of PFME. These results suggest that there is a  need to strategize a health education programme for PFME that is accessible to a diverse women population.