HOW WOMEN WITH PELVIC FLOOR DYSFUNCTION EXPERIENCE PELVIC FLOOR CONSERVATIVE NON-PHARMACOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS? A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES

A.C.N.L. Fernandes1, D. Palacios-Ceña2, C.C. Pena1, T.B. Duarte3, A.M.P. de la Ossa1, C.H.J. Ferreira1
1University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, 2University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain, 3University Center of Northern, Manaus, Brazil

Background: Women’s adherence is an essential component to be considered during conservative non-pharmacological treatment for pelvic floor dysfunction. Adherence and its related factors are not usually considered during the development treatment’s approaches but it can influence the patient's prognosis.

Purpose: To understand how women with pelvic floor dysfunction experience pelvic floor conservative non-pharmacological treatment options.

Methods: A systematic review of qualitative studies. The electronic search was conducted on April 2020 to identify articles available in MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, Lilacs, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases focused on the experience of women about pelvic floor conservative non pharmacological interventions (i.e. pelvic floor muscle training associated or not to biofeedback, perineal massage, vaginal dilators, vaginal cones, electrical nerve stimulation).

Results: It was included in this review 22 manuscripts from different countries. It was performed a qualitative synthesis of eight studies about vaginal devices use (vaginal dilators and pessary) and manual intervention (perineal massage, and hands-on approach). Meta-aggregation was performed with 118 narrative fragments extracted from 14 studies on women’s experience with pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT). The meta-aggregation analysis resulted in four themes: I) External factors influencing PFMT perform; II) Personal factors influence in PFMT performance; III) PFMT characteristics influence women’s adherence; IV) Reality regarding to PFMT practice.

Conclusion(s): Women’s experience with pelvic floor conservative non-pharmacological treatment options is a complex phenomenon that involves much more variables than only personal aspects.

Implications: The results showed relevant aspects that should be considering during treatment (e.g. adequate communication, adequate provision of information, appropriate support from health professionals) to improve women’s experience and adherence to the interventions.

Funding, acknowledgements: ACNLF, CCP and AMPO received scholarship from Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)

Keywords: women’s health

Topic: Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health

Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: Systematic review


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