Pelvic Floor Health Knowledge With Enhanced Education During Pregnancy.

Abstract

Importance: Prior to delivery, there are postpartum pelvic floor recovery topics to provide education on; however, because of a variety of factors, the majority of these are commonly unaddressed, leaving a patient unknowledgeable and unsatisfied.

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to determine if providing tailored/targeted pelvic floor disorder education in the peripartum period will improve nulliparous patients' knowledge of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and urinary incontinence (UI). Our secondary aim was to evaluate if a difference exists in patient satisfaction and understanding.

Study design: This was a single-site nonrandomized interventional study evaluating pregnant patients currently enrolled in an interactive electronic educational platform. We evaluated the change in Prolapse and Incontinence Knowledge Questionnaire (PIKQ) scores at 26-27 weeks antepartum and 6 weeks postpartum in 2 separate cohorts, before and after our education intervention was implemented. We also compared the magnitude of the change in PIKQ scores between the nonintervention and intervention postpartum cohorts as our primary outcome.

Results: We compared the change in PIKQ mean scores between the control and intervention cohorts and found no statistical difference in change of UI (0.1 ± 1.8 vs 0.5 ± 1.9, P = 0.218) or POP knowledge (0.9 ± 2.5 vs 0.8 ± 2.4, P = 0.681). In addition, no significant change was detected in mean PIKQ UI scores for the control group between the antepartum and postpartum period (9.9 ± 2.4 vs 10.1 ± 2.1, P = 0.445), but there was a statistically significant change in POP knowledge scores (7.0 ± 3.3 vs 7.9 ± 3.1, P < 0.001). In the intervention cohort, there was a statistically significant change in both UI (9.3 ± 2.6 vs 9.8 ± 2.2, P = 0.012) and POP knowledge scores (6.7 ± 3.4 vs 7.5 ± 3.2, P = 0.001).

Conclusions: We did not detect a significant difference in mean score change between our cohorts following implementation of a targeted educational intervention using an online educational platform. However, both cohorts had higher than anticipated baseline knowledge on pelvic floor disorders.