An interviewer-administered validated female pelvic floor questionnaire for community-based research

Area of Science:

• Urogynecology
• Pelvic Floor Disorders
• Women's Health Research

Background:

• Pelvic floor dysfunction affects bladder, bowel, and sexual health, impacting quality of life.
• Existing assessment tools may not comprehensively capture these issues in community-dwelling women.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate an interviewer-administered questionnaire for assessing female pelvic floor function.
• To evaluate bladder, bowel, and sexual function, pelvic organ prolapse, and quality of life.

Main Methods:

• Developed and administered a questionnaire to 493 community-dwelling women (aged 40-79).
• Conducted psychometric testing, including face, discriminant, convergent validity, and reliability analyses.
• Compared community sample with 55 urogynecology clinic patients for discriminant validity.

Main Results:

• The questionnaire demonstrated excellent face validity and minimal missing data (<2%).
• It effectively discriminated between community and urogynecology populations across all pelvic floor domains.
• Strong correlations were found for bladder, bowel, prolapse, and sexual function domains with established measures.
• Reliability was adequate (Cronbach's alpha >= 0.7) and test-retest reproducibility was high (Kappa 0.63-1.0).

Conclusions:

• The interviewer-administered questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing female pelvic floor function.
• It comprehensively covers bladder, bowel, sexual function, and quality of life issues.
• The tool is suitable for researchers investigating pelvic floor disorders in women.