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P. Spagnuolo1, J. Taeymans1, J. De Jong2, I. Koenig1
1Bern University of Applied Sciences, Health, Bern, Switzerland, 2SOMT Pelvic Education, Interlaken, Switzerland
Background: There are knowledge gaps in pelvic floor anatomy, function and dysfunction in women. Sports coaches and health professionals are working with customers and patients who can be affected by pelvic floor dysfunction. As understanding anatomy and function is part of health literacy and a basis for communication in health and sports settings, the aim of this study was to examine the knowledge of pelvic floor function and dysfunction in lay women, health professionals and sports coaches and, to record whether an objective or perceived learning effect is present immediately and 4 weeks after an education video.
Purpose: The project was launched to examine the effect of a new pelvic floor education video on the knowledge of pelvic floor function and dysfunction in lay women, health professionals and sports coaches.
Methods: In a one group pre-post design with follow-up after 4 weeks an online questionnaire, with a pelvic floor education video embedded in the first one, was provided to three groups, lay women, health professionals (m/w/d) and sports coaches (m/w/d) > age 18. The content- and face-validated questionnaire contained socio-demographics, knowledge about the pelvic floor, prior knowledge, perceived knowledge and learning effect and attitude towards the video. Means and standard deviations from the knowledge score at three measurement points over all groups and per group and a linear mixed effects model was calculated.
Results: 117 participants completed all three questionnaires. After the intervention all groups showed a statistically significant difference in mean knowledge scores (p<.0001 for lay women, p<.0001 for health professionals, p= .0005 for sports coaches) before and after the video education. At follow-up all groups showed a loss of knowledge. Over 2/3 of group participants wished more information of the topic after the follow-up questionnaire.
Conclusions: An online education video increases the knowledge of anatomy, function and dysfunction of the pelvic floor directly after watching the video in lay women, health professionals and sports coaches.
Implications: This is a feasible method which can reach a large group of interested and/or affected people in all groups and can lead to clear communication in and between groups. Studies with larger sample size for more evidence and with focus on improving long-term learning effect are recommended.
Funding acknowledgements: The author(s) received no financial support for the research and authorship of this article.
Keywords:
patient education
health literacy
women’s health
patient education
health literacy
women’s health
Topics:
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Education
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Education
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Reason: N/A
A clarification of responsibility was submitted at the ethics committee of the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, which declared no objection to the study (BASEC-2021-00632). The study did not go the Human Research Act article 2, paragraph 1. The study worked with anonymously collected and anonymized health-related data.
A clarification of responsibility was submitted at the ethics committee of the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, which declared no objection to the study (BASEC-2021-00632). The study did not go the Human Research Act article 2, paragraph 1. The study worked with anonymously collected and anonymized health-related data.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
