Knowledge, attitude, and practices on pelvic floor muscle training towards reducing urinary incontinence among childbearing women [EMBARGOED]

Abstract

Urinary incontinence is experienced by many women during pregnancy and following childbirth and affects a woman’s physical, psychological, and social well-being. Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is recommended as the first choice and first-line therapy for urinary incontinence in women. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, there is no single good measurement tool currently available that can be used to discern type, severity, or both to attribute urinary incontinence to childbearing women. This study aimed to translate and validate the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Michigan Incontinence Symptom Index (M-ISI), to measure the severity of urinary incontinence using a validated M-ISI questionnaire, to determine knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of pelvic floor muscle training among childbearing women, and to identify the association between knowledge, attitude, and practice of pelvic floor muscle training with urinary incontinence among childbearing women. The method used was a cross-sectional study comprising two parts. The first part was a process of translation and validation of the M-ISI questionnaire. The second part was the recruitment of participants who met the inclusion criteria and then a survey involving 896 respondents was conducted through two sets of questionnaires: the Bahasa Malaysia version of M-ISI and KAP of the PFMT questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed among childbearing women present at five Maternal and Child Health Clinics in the East Coast region of Malaysia. The findings found a low prevalence of both types of urinary incontinence, which were stress urinary incontinence (14.3%) and urge urinary incontinence (8.5%). The present study revealed that the respondents had good knowledge and a moderate attitude but lack practice towards PFMT. There was no association between urinary incontinence and the knowledge (p=0.183), attitude (p=0.861), and practice (p=0.074) of PFMT; nevertheless, married women being a protective factor against urinary incontinence with the p-value showed less than 0.05. In conclusion, the practice of PFMT should be highlighted among childbearing women by healthcare professionals. For a better understanding, health promotion about the importance of PFMT should be disseminated among childbearing women.