Objectives: To assess the knowledge of the pelvic floor in female university students, including knowledge of pelvic floor structure, function, pelvic floor dysfunction, and pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFMEs).
Methods: The study design is a cross-sectional study via online questionnaire with convenience sampling of female students registered at University College Cork, Ireland for the academic year 2018 to 2019. An online questionnaire was distributed to students at their registered email addresses. Overall knowledge was assessed through 15 questions, looking at pelvic floor structure, function, pelvic floor dysfunction and PFMEs. A score of 1 was allocated to each correct question, with a maximum possible score of 15. Only respondents who answered all 15 questions were included in the analysis. Ethical approval was granted by the Clinical Research and Ethics Committee, Cork, Ireland, on January 4, 2019.
Results: Nine hundred thirty-eight responses were received. There were 72.6% (n = 640) students who had never received information on the pelvic floor. There were 83.9% (n = 691) students who reported that they thought it was important to exercise the pelvic floor. The mean overall knowledge score of 792 respondents was 9.57 (SD, ± 2.72). There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) in the overall knowledge between the students in the school of medicine and health (n = 307, mean = 11.8, SD = 2.35) and the students of other schools (n = 529, mean = 9.39, SD = 2.88).
Conclusions: Knowledge of the pelvic floor in female university students is poor. Further interventions should aim to improve knowledge of the pelvic floor and encourage correct performance of PFMEs in college students.
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